:P:R,IO:E 


COMPENDIUM 


OF    THE 


IMPENDING   CRISIS 


THE    SOUTH. 


BY 

HINTON     ROWAN     HELPER/ 

OF  NORTH   CAROLINA. 


COUNTRYMEN  !  I  sue  for  simple  justice  at  your  hands, 

Naught  else  I  ask,  nor  less  will  have ; 

Act  right,  therefore,  and  yield  my  claim, 

Or,  by  the  great  God  that  made  all  things, 

I'll  fight,  till  from  iny  banes  my  flesh  be  hack'd  \~Sha7cspear6, 

The  liberal  deviseth  liberal  things, 

And  by  liberal  things  shall  he  stand. — Isaiah. 


NEW  YORK : 
A.  B.   BURDICK,  PUBLISHER, 

No.  145  NASSAU  STREET , 
1860. 


NOW  IS    THE    TIME   TO  SUBSCRIBE. 

THE    NEW   YORK   TRIBUNE. 

THE  TRIBUNE— now  more  than  eighteen  years  old,  and  havingr 
over  a  quarter  of  a  trillion  subscribers,  or  constant  purchasers,  diffused 
through  every  State  and  Territory  of  our  Union — will  continue  in  essence 
what  it  has  been, — the  earnest  champion  of  Liberty,  Progress,  and  of 
whatever  will  conduce  to  our  national  growth  in  Virtue,  Industry, 
Knowledge,  and  Prosperity. 

THE  NEW-YORK  DAILY  TRIBUNE 

is  printed  on  a  large  imperial  sheet,  and  published  every  morning  and 
evening  (Sundays  excepted).  It  contains  editorials  on  the  topics  of 
the  times,  employing  a  large  corps  of  the  best  newspaper  writers  of  the 
day;  Domestic  and  Foreign  Correspondence;  Proceedings  of  Congress; 
Reports  of  Lectures ;  City  News ;  Cattle,  Horse,  and  Produce  Markets ; 
Reviews  of  Books;  Literary  Intelligence;  Papers  on  Mechanics  and  the 
Arts,  Cookery,  &c.,  &c.  We  strive  to  make  THE  TRIBUNE  a  newspaper 
to  meet  the  wants  of  the  public — its  Telegraphic  news  alone  costing  over 
$15,000  per  annum.  Terms :  THE  DAILY  TRIBUNE  is  mailed  to  subscribers, 
at  $6  per  annum,  in  advance  ;  $3  for  six  months. 

THE  NEW«YORK  SEMI- WEEKLY  TRIBUNE 

is  published  every  Tuesday  and  Friday,  and  contains  all  the  Editorials 
of  the  D  dly,  with  the  Cattle,  Horse,  and  General  Markets,  reliably  re 
ported  for  THE  TRIBUNE  ;  Notices  of  New  Inventions,  Foreign  and  Domes 
tic  Correspondence,  Articles  on  Cookery ;  and  during  the  sessions  of 
Congress  it  contains  a  summary  of  Congressional  doings,  with  the  more 
mportant  speeches.  We  shall,  as  heretofore,  make  THE  SEMI- WEEKLY 
CRIBUNE  a  luterary,  as  well  as  a  political  newspaper,  and  we  are  deter- 
oined  that  it  shall  remain  in  the  front  rank  of  family  papers. 

One  Copy,  one  year $3  I  Five  Copies,  one  year $11  25 

Two  Copies,  one  year $5  |  Ten  Copies,  to  one  address.. $20  00 

Ten  Copies  or  over,  to  address  of  each  subscriber,  $2  20  each. 

Any  person  sending  us  a  club  of  twenty,  or  over,  will  be  entitled  to  an 
extra  copy.  For  a  club  of  fifty  we  will  send  The  Daily  Tribune  one  year. 

The  SEMI- WEEKLY  TRIBUNE  is  sent  to  Clergymen  at  $2  per  annum. 

THE  NEW-YORK  WEEKLY  TRIBUNE 

a  large  eight-page  paper  for  the  country,  is  published  every  Saturday, 
and  contains  Editorials  on  the  important  topics  of  the  times,  the  news  of 
the  week,  interesting  correspondence  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  the 
New- York  Cattle,  Horse,  and  Produce  Markets,  interesting  and  reliable 
Political,  Mechanical,  and  Agricultural  articles,  Papers  on  Cookery,  &c. 

We  shall,  during  this  year,  as  hitherto,  constantly  labor  to  improve  the 
quality  of  the  instructive  entertainment  afforded  by  THE  WEEKLY  TRI 
BUNE,  which,  we  intend,  shall  continue  to  be  the  best  Family  Weekly 
Newspaper  published  in  the  world.  We  consider  the  Cattle  Market  Re 
ports  alone  r.chly  worth  to  Cattle  raisers  a  year's  subscription  price. 

One  Copy,  one  year $2  j  Five  Copies,  one  year $8 

Three  Copies,  one  year $5  |  Ten  Copies,  one  yetvr. 12 

Twenty  Copies,  to  otic  address,  $20 — and  any  larger  number  $1  each. 

Twenty  Copies,  to  address  of  each  subscriber  $24— and  any  larger  numbei 
at  $  1   20  each. 

Any  person  sending  us  a  club  of  Twenty,  or  more,  will  be  entitled  to 
,ui  extra  copy.  For  a  Club  of  forty,  we  will  send  the  SEMI- WEEKLY 
TRIBUNE  ;  and  for  a  club  of  One  Hundred  THE  DAILY  TRIBUNE  will  be  sent 
gratis.  We  continue  to  send  THE  WEELY  TRIBUNE  to  Clergymen  for  $1. 

Subscriptions  may  commence  at  any  time.  Terms  always  cash  in 
Advance.  All  letters  to  be  addressed  to  HORACE  GREELEY  &  C<  >. 

Tribune  Buildings,  Nassuu-st.,  New-lurk. 


COMPENDIUM 


OF    THE 


IMPENDING   CRISIS 


OF 


THE    SOUTH. 


BY 

HINTON    ROWAN    HELPEE, 

OF  NORTH   CAROLINA. 


COUNTRYMEN  !  I  sue  for  simple  justice  at  your  hands, 

Naught  else  I  ask,  nor  less  will  have  ; 

Act  right,  therefore,  and  yield  my  claim, 

Or,  by  the  great  God  that  made  all  things, 

I'll  fight,  till  from  my  bones  my  flesh  be  hack'd ! — Shakspear*. 

The  liberal  deviseth  liberal  things, 

And  by  liberal  things  shall  he  stand.— Isaiah. 


NEW  YORK : 
A.  B.  BURDICK,  PUBLISHER, 

No.  145  NASSAU  STEEET. 
1860. 


€a 


O  A.  S  S  I  U  S      MI.     CL^Y, 

OF    KENTUCKY, 

IF:R,.AJSrCIS   F.  BH^IR,  Jr., 

OF    MISSOURI, 

BEJISTJ^-lMIlsr      S.HEJI3R,ICI£, 

OF   NORTH    CAROLINA, 
AND   TO   THE 

NON-SLAVEHOLDING  WHITES   OF   THE   SOUTH,  GENERALLY, 

WHETIIEE   AT    HOME    OE    ABEOAD, 
WOilK    IS    MOST    CORDIALLY    DEDICATED 

BY   THEIR 

SINCERE  FRIEND  AND  FELLOW-CITIZEN, 

THE    AUTHOR. 


J 

UOAN 


STACK 


ENTERED  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1859,  by 

A.    B.    BURDICK, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


W.  H.  TINSOK,  Stereotypes  GEO.  RUSSELL  &  Co..  Printers 


PREFACE. 


IK  my  countrymen,  particularly  my  countrymen  of  the  South,  still  more  particularly  those 
of  them  who  are  non-slaveholders,  shall  peruse  this  work,  they  will  learn  that  no  narrow 
and  partial  doctrines  of  political  or  social  economy,  no  prejudices  of  early  education,  have 
induced  me  to  write  it.  If,, in  any  part  of  it,  I  have  actually  deflected  from  the  tone  of  true 
patriotism  and  nationality,  I  am  unable  to  perceive  the  fault.  What  I  have  committed  to 
paper  is  but  a  fair  reflex  of  the  honest  and  long-settted  convictions  of  my  heart. 

In  writing  this  book  it  has  been  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  cast  unmerited  opprobrium  upon 
slaveholders,  or  to  display  any  special  friendliness  or  sympathy  for  the  blacks.  I  have 
considered  my  subject  more  particularly  with  reference  to  its  economic  aspects  as  regards 
the  whites— not  with  reference,  except  in  a  very  slight  degree,  to  its  humanitarian  or  religious 
•aspects.  To  the  latter  side  of  the  question,  Northern  writers  have  already  done  full  and 
timely  justice.  The  genius  of  the  North  has  also  most  ably  and  eloquently  discussed  the 
subject  in  the  form  of  novels.  New  England  wives  have  written  the  most  popular  anti-slavery 
literature  of  the  day.  Against  this  I  have  nothing  to  say-,  it  is  all  well  enough  for  women  to 
give  the  fictions  of  slavery  ;  men  should  give  the  facts. 

I  trust  that  my  friends  and  fellow-citizens  of  the  South  will  read  this  book — nay,  proud  as 
any  Southerner  though  I  am,  I  entreat,  I  beg  of  them  to  do  so.  And  as  the  work,  considered 
with  reference  to  its  author's  nativity,  is  a  novelty — the  South  being  my  birth-place  and  my 
home,  and  my  ancestry  having  resided  there  far  more  than  a  century — so  I  indulge  the  hope 
that  its  reception  by  my  fellow-Southrons  will  also  be  novel ;  that  is  to  say,  that  they  will 
receive  it,  as  it  is  offered,  in  a  reasonable  and  friendly  spirit,  and  that  they  will  read  it  and 
reflect  upon  it  as  an  honest  and  faithful  endeavor  to  treat  a  subject  of  vast  import,  without 
rancor  or  prejudice,  by  one  who  naturally  comes  within  the  pale  of  their  own  sympathies. 

An  irrepressibly  active  desire  to  do  something  to  elevate  the  South  to  an  honorable  and 
powerful  position  among  the  enlightened  quarters  of  the  globe,  has  been  the  great  leading 
principle  that  has  actuated  me  in  the  preparation  of  the  present  volume ;  and  so  well  con^ 
winced  am  I  that  the  plan  which  I  have  proposed  is  the  only  really  practicable  one  foi 
achieving  the  desired  end,  that  I  earnestly  hope  to  see  it  prosecuted  with  energy  and  zeal, 
until  the  Flag  of  Freedom  shall  wave  triumphantly  alike  over  the  valleys  Df  Virginia  and 
the  mounds  of  Mississippi. 

H.  R.  IL 

r^T7 

, 1859. 


CONTENTS,  ALPHABETICALLY  AKKANGED. 


Adams,  John  Quincy,  116. 

Addison,  Joseph,  207. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  7. 

Agricultural  Products,  20. 

Alexander  II.  of  Russia,  126, 141. 

American  Emigrant  Aid  and  Homestead  Co., 

203. 

Animals  Slaughtered,  Value  of,  40. 
Area  of  the  several  States  and  Territories,  71, 

72. 

Aristotle,  12S. 
Attorneys-General,  186. 

Bailey,  Gamaliel,  159. 

Bailey,  William  S.,  164. 

Bank  Capital  of  the  several  States,  173. 

Banks,  Nathaniel  P.,  147. 

Bapst,  M.  126. 

Baptist  Testimony,  133. 

Barley,  20. 

Barlow,  Joel,  207. 

Barnes,  Albert,  130. 

Beans  and  Peas,  21. 

Beattie,  James,  124. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  154. 

Beeswax  and  Honey,  36. 

Bellows,  Henry  W.,  155. 

Benton,  Thomas  H.,  99. 

Berdan,  Hiram,  69. 

Bible  Testimony,  138-140. 

Bible  and  Tract  Cause,  179. 

Birney,  James  G.,  102. 

Blackstone,  Sir  William,  122. 

Blair,  Francis  P.,  Sen.,  148. 

Blair,  Francis  P.,  Jr.,  148. 

Boiling,  Phillip  A.,  101. 

Booth,  Abraham,  134. 

Brisbane,  William  II.,  133. 

Brissot,  125. 

Brougham,  Lord,  123. 

Brown,  B.  Gratz,  151. 

Urowne,  R.  K.,  191. 

Buckwheat,  21. 

Buffon,  125. 

Burke,  Edmund,  123. 

Burleigh,  C.  C.,  166. 

Burleigh,  Wm.  Henry,  166. 

Burlingame,  Anson,  149. 

Burn's,  Robert,  120. 

Bushel— measure  Products,  22. 

Butler,  Bishop,  132. 

Butter  and  Cheese,  36. 

Cameron,  Paul  C.,  27. 
Canals  and  Railroads,  rniks  of,  173. 
Cane,  Sugar,  86. 
Carey,  Henry  C.,151. 
iv 


Cartwright,  Dr.,  of  New  Orleans,  182, 

Catholic  Testimony,  186. 

Chandler,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  101. 

Channing,  Wm.  E.,  114. 

Chapin,  E.  H.,  155. 

Chase  Salmon  P.,  143. 

Cheese  and  Butter,  36. 

Cheever,  George  B.,  154. 

Churches,  Value  of,  178. 

Cicero,  127. 

Cities,  nine  Free  and  nine  Slave,  19», 

Clarke,  Di*.  Adam,  134. 

Clarke,  Judge,  of  Mississippi,  107. 

Clay,  Henry,  99. 

Clay,  Cassius  M.,  141,  144, 182. 

Clay,  C.  C.,  31. 

Cleveland,  C.  D.,  181. 

Clinton,  DeWitt,  117. 

Clover  and  Grass  Seed,  21. 

Coke,  Sir  Edward  123. 

Colonization  Movements,  88. 

Colonization  Cause  Contributions,  179. 

Commercial  Cities — Southern  Commerce,  195- 

200. 
Comparisons  between  the  North  and  the  South, 

7-61. 

Conway,  M.  D,,  162. 
Corn,  Indian,  20. 
Corwin,  Thomas,  150. 
Cotton,  36. 

Cowper,  William,  122. 
Crops  per  Acre,  88,  39. 
Curran,  John  Philpot,  123. 
Curtis,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  54. 

Darien  (Georgia)  Resolution,  212. 

Davis,  Thomas,  168. 

Deaths  in  the  several  States  in  1850, 180. 

DeBow,  J.  D.  B.,  17. 

Decrease  of  Agricultural  Products,  44, 

Dublin  University  Magazine,  123. 

Elliott,  Chas.  W.,  165. 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  150. 
Emigration  to  Liberia,  88. 
Emperor  of  Russia,  126,  141. 
England,  Voice  of,  120. 
Episcopal  Testimony,  132. 
Etheridge,  Emerson,  84. 
Expenditures  of  the  several  States,  45. 
Exports  and  Imports,  172. 

Tacts  and  Arguments  by  the  Wayside,  201- 

206. 

Farms,  Cash  Value  of,  40. 
Faulkner,  Charles  James,  53,  85. 
Fee,  John  G.,  1C3, 


CONTENTS 


Five  Points,  Election  at  the,  in  1356,  82. 

Flax,  35— Flax  Seed,  21. 

Fortescue,  Sir  John,  123. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  121. 

France,  Voice  of,  124, 

Franking  Privilege,  availed  of,  211. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  114. 

Free  Figures  and  Slave,  171-194. 

Free  Labor  Movements  in  the  South,  202. 

Tree  White  Agriculturists  in  the  Slave  States, 

180. 

Freedom  and  Slavery  at  the  Fair,  191, 
Fremont,  John  Charles,  144. 
Frothingham,  0.  B.,  164, 
Furness,  Win.  Henry,  1G7. 

Garden  Products,  Value  of,  21. 

Garrison,  Win.  Loyd,  153. 

Gaston,  Judge,  of  North  Carolina,  103. 

Georgia,  Slavery  in,  111. 

Germany,  Voice  of,  125. 

Giddings,  Joshua  R.,  149, 

Godwin,  Parke,  165. 

Goethe,  125. 

Goodell,  WMlliam,  156. 

Goodloe,  Daniel  11.,  161, 

Greece,  Voice  of,  128. 

Greeley,  Horace,  157, 

Griffith,  Mattie,  160. 

Grimke,  Sarah,  M.,  160. 

Grotius,  125. 

Grow,  Galusha  A.,  149. 

Hale,  John  P.,  146. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  115, 

Hammond,  Gov.,  of  South  Carolina,  SO,  182. 

Hampden,  John,  123. 

Harrington,  James,  123. 

Hay,  29,  35. 

Hedrick,  B.  S.,  161. 

Hemp,  35. 

Henry,  Patrick,  96. 

Hildreth,  Richard,  164. 

Honey  and  Beeswax,  86. 

Hops,  35. 

Horseley,  Bishop,  132, 

How  Slavery  can  be  Abolished,  62-90. 

Huddlestone,  M.  P.,  121. 

Hurlbut,  William  Henry,  110, 188. 

Illiterate  Poor  Whites  of  the  South,  204. 
Illiterate  White  Adults,  176,  212. 
Imports  and  Exports,  172. 
Indian  Corn,  20. 

Inhabitants  to  the  Square  Mile,  143. 
Inventions,  New,  Patents  issued  on,  178. 
Iredell,  Judge,  of  North  Carolina,  100. 
Ireland,  Voice  of,  123, 
Italy,  Voice  of,  127. 

Jay,  John,  Judge,  115. 
Jay,  John,  Esq.,  17, 132, 
Jay,  William,  116. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  94. 
Johnson,  Oliver,  180. 
Johnson,  Samuel,  Dr.,  122, 

Kansas,  Aid  for,  188. 
Kapp,  Frederick,  125. 

Lactantius,  128. 

Lafayette,  Gen.,  124—0.  Lafayette,  124. 

Langenschwarz,  Dr.  Max,  126. 

Lawrence,  Abbott  and  Amos,  55. 

Leavitt,  Joshua,  156. 

Leigh,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  101. 


Leo  X.,  128. 

Liberia,  Emigration  to,  88. 

Libraries  other  than  Private,  175. 

Lieber,  Francis,  62. 

Live  Stock,  Value  of,  40. 

Locke,  John,  121. 

Long,  John  Dixon,  163. 

Louis  X.,  125. 

Luther,  Martin,  125, 

McDowell,  Gov.  of  Virginia,  100. 

McKim,  J.  Miller,  166. 

McLane,  Louis,  100. 

Macaulay,  T.  Babington,  207. 

Macknight,  James,  124, 

Madison,  James,  96. 

Mansfield,  Lord,  120. 

Manufactures,  products  of,  172, 

Maple  Sugar,  35. 

Marion,  Francis,  110. 

Martin,  Luther,  103. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  122. 

Marshall,  Thomas,  100. 

Maryland,  Slavery  in,  103. 

Mason,  James  M.,  107. 

Mason,  Col.,  of  Virginia,  100. 

Massachusetts  and  North  Carolina,  9. 

Mattison,  Hiram,  135, 

May,  Samuel  J.,  156. 

Mayo,  A.  D.,  167. 

Mecklenburg    Declaration   of  Independence, 

.    106. 

Methodist  Testimony,  134. 

Militia  Force  of  the  Several  States,  174. 

Miller,  Prof.,  of  Glasgow,  124. 

Milton,  John,  122. 

Missionary  Cause  Contributions,  179. 

Monroe,  James,  96. 

Montesquieu,  124. 

Moore,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  54. 

Morgan,  Edwin  D.,  147. 

Mortality  in  the  Several  States,  180, 

Newspaper    and  Periodical  Statistics,  176. 

New  York  and  Virginia,  8, 

New  York  and  North  Carolina,  192. 

New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer,  158, 

New  York  Herald,  209. 

New  York  Times,  54, 157. 

New  York  Tribune,  209. 

North  American  and  United  States  Gazette, 

57,  58. 

North  Carolina,  Slavery  in,  104. 
North  Carolina  and  Massachusetts,  9. 
North  Carolina  and  New  York,  192. 
Northern  Testimony,  114-119. 
Northerners  in  the  Slave  States,  184. 
Nott,  Dr.  J.  C.,  188. 

Oats,  20. 

Oglethorpe,  Gen.,  111. 
Olmsted,  Fred.  Law,  168. 
Orchard  Products,  Value  of,  21. 

Parker,  Theodore,  153. 

Paul  off,  M.,  127. 

Patents  Issued  on  New  Inventions,  178. 

Peas  and  Beans,  21. 

Pennsylvania  and  South  Carolina,  10. 

Perry,  B  F.,  111. 

Philadelphia  North  American,  57,  58, 

Phillips,  Wendell,  152. 

Pierpont,  John,  187. 

Pinkney,  William,  10L 

Pitt,  WUliam,  121. 

Plato,  123. 


V] 


COJTTENTS. 


Pollok,  Robert,  130. 

Polybius,  128. 

Poor  Whites  of  the  South,  1S1,  1S2,  183,  204. 

Pope  Gregory  XVL,  130. 

Pope  Leo  X.,  123. 

Popular  Vote  for  President  in  1S56,  177. 

Population  of  the  Several  States,  71,  72. 

Povteus,  Bishop,  132. 

Postmasters-General,  186. 

Post  Oflice  Statistics,  174. 

Potatoes,  20. 

Pound-Measure  Products,  37. 

Powell,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  54. 

Presbyterian  Testimony,  130. 

Presidents  of  the  United  States,  185. 

Presidential  Elections  since  1796, 188. 

Preston,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  102. 

Prettyman,  James  D.,  163. 

Price,  Dr.,  of  London,  122. 

Products  per  Acre,  38,  39. 

Public  School  Statistics,  175. 

Queen  Victoria,  121. 

Hailroada  and  Canals,  miles  of,  173. 

Randolph,  John,  of  Roanoke,  97. 

Randolph,  Thomas  M.,  97. 

Randolph,  Thomas  Jefferson,  98. 

Randolph,  Peyton,  98. 

Randolph,  Edmund,  93. 

Raymond.  Henry  J.,  157. 

Raynal,  The  Abbe,  137. 

Real  and  Personal  Property,  45. 

Reid,  Mr.,  of  Georgia,  112. 

Republican  Newspapers  in  the  South,  204. 

Revenue  of  the  Several  States,  45. 

Rice,  36. 

Richmond  Enquirer,  49. 

Rives,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  54. 

Rousseau,  125. 

Ruffin,  Judge,  of  North  Carolina,  107. 

Russia,  Voice  of,  126. 

Eye,  SO. 

Schools,  Public,  175. 

Schurz,  Carl,  125. 

Scotland,  Voice  of,  124. 

Scott,  Thomas,  (Commentator,)  132. 

Secretaries  of  State,  185. 

Secretaries  of  the  Interior,  186. 

Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  1S7. 

Secretaries  of  War,  187. 

Secretaries  of  the  Navy,  187. 

Settlement  of  the  Several  States,  Period  of, 

and  their  admission  into  the  Union,  191. 
Seward,  Wm.  II.,  142. 
Shakspeare,  121. 
Slaveholders,  Number  of,  72,  73. 
Slaveholders  Classified,  73. 
Slaves,  Value  of,  at  $400  per  head,  184. 


Slavery,  how  it  might  be  Abolished,  62. 

Slavery  Thoughtful— Signs  of  Contrition,  202, 

Smith,  G  en-it,  148. 

Snodgrass,  J.  E,,  162. 

Socrates,  128. 

South  Carolina  and  Pennsylvania,  10. 

South  Carolina,  Slavery  in,  109. 

Southern  Literature,  207-214. 

Southern  Testimony  against  Slavery,  91-118. 

Speakers  of   the  House   of   Representatives, 

186. 

States,  the  Several,  when  First  Settled,  191. 
Statistics,  Science  of,  16,  17. 
Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  159. 
Sugar,  Cane,  38. 
Sugar,  Maple,  So. 
Summers,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  102. 
Sumner,  Charles,  145. 
Supreme  Court,  Judges  of,  185. 
Swaim,  Benjamin,  108. 

Tappan,  Lewis,  156. 

Tarver,  M.,  80. 

Taylor,  Wm.  C.,  LL.D.,  16. 

Territories,  the,  Area  and  Population  of,  72. 

Testimony  of  the  South,  91-113. 

Testimony  of  the  North,  114-119. 

Testimony  of  the  Nations,  120-129. 

Testimony  of  the  Churches,  130-137. 

Testimony  of  the  Bible,  138-140. 

Testimony  of  Living  Witnesses,  141-170, 

Thompson,  Joseph  P.,  154. 

Tobacco,  85. 

Tonnage  of  the  Several  States,  172. 

Tract  Cause  Contributions,  179. 

Underwood,  John  C.,  1G1,  204. 

Victoria,  Queen,  121. 

Virginia— Bill  of  Rights,  103. 

Virginia  and  New  York,  8. 

Votes  cast  for  President  in  1856, 177. 

Wade,  Edward,  147. 

Warren,  Joseph,  117. 

Washington,  George,  93. 

Wayland,  Francis,  133. 

Wealth  of  the  Several  States,  45. 

Webb,  J.  Watson,  158. 

Webster,  Daniel,  116. 

Webster,  Noah,  117. 

Weed,  Thurlow,  153. 

Weld,  Angelina  E.,  1(50 

Weld,  Theodore  D.,  169. 

Wesley,  John,  1"4. 

Weston,  George  M.,  79. 

Wheat,  20. 

Wilson,  Henry,  146. 

Wise,  Henry  A.,  8.  4& 

Wool,  30. 


CHAPTER   I. 

COMPARISONS   BETWEEN  THE   FEEE    AND   THE   £LAVE   STATES. 

Comparisons  are  at  the  bottom  of  all  philosophy.  It  is  by  comparisons  that  we  ascertain 
the  difference  which  exists  between  things,  and  it  is  by  comparisons,  also,  that  we  ascertain  the 
general  features  of  things,  and  it  is  by  comparisons  that  we  reach  general  propositions. 
Without  comparisons  we  never  can  generalize.  Without  comparisons  we  never  could  go 
beyond  the  knowledge  of  isolated,  disconnected  facts. — AGASSIZ. 

IT  is  not  our  intention  in  tliis  chapter  to  enter  into  an  elaborate 
ethnographical  essay,  to  establish  peculiarities  of  difference,  mental, 
moral,  or  physical,  in  the  great  family  of  man.  Neither  is  it  our  design 
to  launch  into  a  philosophical  disquisition  on  the  laws  and  principles  of 
light  and  darkness,  with  a  view  of  educing  any  additional  evidence  of 
the  fact,  that  as  a  general  rule,  the  rays  of  the  sun  are  more  fructifying 
and  congenial  than  the  shades  of  night.  Nor  yet  is  it  our  purpose,  by 
writing  a  formal  treatise  on  ethics,  to  draw  a  broad  line  of  distinction 
between  right  and  wrong,  to  point  out  the  propriety  of  morality  and  its 
advantages  over  immorality,  nor  to  waste  time  in  pressing  a  universally 
admitted  truism — that  virtue  is  preferable  to  vice.  Self-evident  truths 
require  no  argumentative  demonstration. 

What  we  mean  to  do  is  simply  this:  to  take  a  survey  of  the  relative 
position  and  importance  of  the  several  states  of  this  confederacy,  from 
the  adoption  of  the  national  compact ;  and  when,  of  two  sections  of  the 
country  starting  under  the  same  auspices,  and  with  equal  natural  advan 
tages,  we  find  the  one  rising  to  a  degree  of  almost  unexampled  power  and 
eminence,  and  the  other  sinking  into  a  state  of  comparative  imbecility 
and  obscurity,  it  is  our  determination  to  trace  out  the  causes  which  have 
led  to  the  elevation  of  the  former,  and  the  depression  of  the  latter,  and 
to  use  our  most  earnest  and  honest  endeavors  to  utterly  extirpate  what 
ever  opposes  the  progress  and  prosperity  of  any  portion  of  the  Union. 

This  survey  we  have  already  made ;  we  have  also  instituted  impar 
tial  comparisons  between  the  cardinal  sections  of  the  country,  north, 
south,  east,  and  west ;  and  as  a  true-hearted  southerner,  whose  ancestors 
have  resided  in  North  Carolina  between  one  and  two  hundred  years,  and 
as  one  who  would  rather  have  his  native  clime  excel  than  be  excelled,  wo 
feel  constrained  to  confess  that  we  are  deeply  abashed  and  chagrined  at 
the  disclosures  of  the  comparisons  thus  instituted.  At  the  time  of  th« 

7 


t$  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN    THE 

adoption  of  the  Constitution  in  1789,  we  commenced  an  even  race  with 
the  North.  All  things  considered,  if  either  the  North  or  the  South  had 
the  advantage,  it  was  the  latter.  In  proof  of  this,  let  us  introduce  a  few 

statistics,  beginning  with  the  states  of 

NEW    TOEK   AND    VIEGIXIA. 

In  1790,  when  the  first  census  was  taken,  New  York  contained  340,120 
inhabitants  ;  at  the  same  time  the  population  of  Virginia  was  748,308, 
being  more  than  twice  the  number  of  New  York.  Just  sixty  years  after 
ward,  as  we  learn  from  the  census  of  1850,  New  York  had  a  population 
of  3,097,394;  while  that  of  Virginia  was  only  1,421,601,  being  less  than 
half  the  number  of  New  York!  In  1791,  the  exports  of  New  York 
amounted  to  $2,505,465;  the  exports  of  Virginia  amounted  to  $3,130,865. 
In  1852,  the  exports  of  New  York  amounted  to  $87,484,456;  the  exports 
of  Virginia,  during  the  same  year,  amounted  to  only  $2,724,657.  In  1790, 
the  imports  of  New  York  and  Virginia  were  about  equal;  in  1853,  the 
imports  of  New  York  amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of  $178,270,999: 
while  those  of  Virginia,  for  the  same  period,  amounted  to  the  compara 
tively  pitiful  aggregate  of  only  $399,004.  In  1850,  the  products  of 
manufactures,  mining  and  the  mechanics  arts  in  New  York  amounted  to 
$237,597,249  ;  those  of  Virginia  amounted  to  only  $29,705,387.  At  the 
taking  of  the  last  census,  the  value  of  real  and  personal  property  in  Vir 
ginia,  including  negroes,  was  $391,646,438;  that  of  New  York,  exclusive 
of  any  monetary  valuation  of  human  beings,  was  $1,080,309,216. 

In  August,  1856,  the  real  and  personal  estate  assessed  in  the  City  of 
New  York  amounted  in  valuation  to  $511,740,491,  showing  that  New 
York  City  alone  is  worth  far  more  than  the  whole  State  of  Virginia. 

"What  says  one  of  Virginia's  own  sons  ?  He  still  lives ;  hear  him 
speak.  Says  Gov.  Wise: 

"  It  may  be  painful,  but  nevertheless,  profitable,  to  recur  occasionally  to  the  his 
tory  of  the  past ;  to  listen  to  the  admonitions  of  experience,  and  learn  lessons  of 
wisdom  from  the  efforts  and  actions  of  those  who  have  preceded  us  in  the  drama 
of  human  life.  The  records  of  former  days  show  that  at  a  period  not  very  remote, 
Virginia  stood  preeminently  the  first  commercial  State  in  the  Union  ;  when  her 
commerce  exceeded  in  amount  that  of  all  the  New  England  States  combined  ; 
when  the  city  of  Norfolk  owned  more  than  oie  hundred  trading  ships,  and  her 
direct  foreign  trade  exceeded  that  of  the  city  of  New  York,  now  the  centre  of 
trade  and  the  great  emporium  of  North  America.  At  the  period  of  the  Avar  of 
independence,  the  commerce  of  Virginia  was  four  times  larger  than  that  of  New 
York." 

The  cash  value  of  all  the  farms,  farming  implements  and  machinery 
in  Virginia,  in  1850,  was  $223,423,315;  the  valuo  of  the  same  in  New 
York,  in  the  same  year,  was  $576,631,568.  In  about  the  same  ratio  does 
the  value  of  the  agricultural  products  and  live  stock  of  New  York 
exceed  the  value  of  the  agricultural  products  and  live  stock  of  Virginia. 
But  we  will  pursue  this  humiliating  comparison  no  further.  Wilh  feel- 


FREE   AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES.  9 

ings  mingled  with  indignation  and  disgust,  we  turn  from  the  picture,  and 
will  now  pay  our  respects  to 

MASSACHUSETTS    AND   NORTH    CAROLINA. 

In  1790,  Massachusetts  contained  378,717  inhabitants;  in  the  same 
year  North  Carolina  contained  393,751 ;  in  1850,  the  population  of 
Massachusetts  was  994,514,  all  freemen ;  while  that  of  North  Carolina 
was  only  869,039,  of  whom  288,548  were  slaves.  Massachusetts  has  an 
area  of  only  7,800  square  miles ;  the  area  of  North  Carolina  is  50,704 
square  miles,  which,  though  less  than  Virginia,  is  considerably  larger 
than  the  State  of  New  York.  Massachusetts  and  North  Carolina  each 
have  a  harbor,  Boston  and  Beaufort,  which  harbors,  with  the  States  that 
back  them,  are,  by  nature,  possessed  of  about  equal  capacities  and 
advantages  for  commercial  and  manufacturing  enterprise.  Boston  has 
grown  to  be  the  second  commercial  city  in  the  Union ;  her  ships, 
freighted  with  the  useful  and  unique  inventions  and  manufactures  of  her 
ingenious  artisans  and  mechanics!,  and  bearing  upon  their  stalwart  arms 
the  majestic  flag  of  our  country,  glide  triumphantly  through  the  winds 
and  over  the  waves  of  every  ocean.  She  has  done,  and  is  now  doing, 
great  honor  to  herself,  her  State  and  the  nation,  and  her  name  and  fame 
are  spoken  with  reverence  in  the  remotest  regions  of  the  earth. 

How  is  it  with  Beaufort,  in  North  Carolina,  whose  harbor  is  said  to 
be  the  safest  and  most  commodious  anywhere  to  be  found  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  south  of  the  harbor  of  New  York,  and  but  little  inferior 
to  that  ?  Has  anybody  ever  heard  of  her  ?  Do  the  masts  of  her  ships 
ever  cast  a  shadow  on  foreign  waters?  Upon  what  distant  or  benighted 
shore  have  her  merchants  and  mariners  ever  hoisted  our  national 
ensign,  or  spread  the  arts  of  civilization  and  peaceful  industry  ?  What 
changes  worthy  of  note  have  taken  place  in  the  physical  features  of  her 
superficies  since  "the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  third  day?" 
But  we  will  make  no  further  attempt  to  draw  a  comparison  between  the 
populous,  wealthy,  and  renowned  city  of  Boston  and  the  obscure,  des 
picable  little  village  of  Beaufort,  which,  notwithstanding  "  the  placid 
bosom  of  its  deep  and  well-protected  harbor,"  has  no  place  in  the  annals 
or  records  of  the  country,  and  has  scarcely  ever  been  heard  of  fifty 
miles  from  home. 

In  1853,  the  exports  of  Massachusetts  amounted  to  $16,895,304,  ami 
her  imports  to  $41,367,956;  during  the  same  time,  and  indeed  during 
all  the  time,  from  the  period  of  the  formation  of  the  government  up  to 
the  year  1853,  inclusive,  the  exports  and  imports  of  North  Carolina  were 
so  utterly  insignificant  that  we  are  ashamed  to  record  them.  In  1850, 
the  products  of  manufactures,  mining  and  the  mechanic  arts  in  Massa 
chusetts,  amounted  to  $151,137,145;  those  of  North  Carolina,  to  only 
$9,111,245.  In  1856,  tba  products  of  these  industrial  pnrsu.ts  in  Massa 


10  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN    THli 

ohusetts  had  increased  to  something  over  $288,000,000,  a  sum  more  than 
twice  the  value  of  the  entire  cotton  crop  of  all  the  Southern  States !  In 
1850,  the  cash  value  of  all  the  farms,  farming  implements  and  machinery 
in  Massachusetts,  was  $112,285,931 ;  the  value  of  the  same  in  North 
Carolina,  in  the  same  year,  was  only  $71,823,298.  In  1850,  the 
value  of  all  the  real  and  personal  estate  in  Massachusetts,  without  recog 
nizing  property  in  man,  or  setting  a  monetary  price  on  the  head  of  a 
single  citizen,  white  or  black,  amounted  to  $573,342,286;  the  value  of 
the  same  in  North  Carolina,  including  negroes,  amounted  to  only 
$226,800,472.  In  1856,  the  real  and  personal  estate  assessed  in  the  city 
of  Boston  amounted  in  valuation  to  within  a  fraction  of  $250,000,000, 
showing  conclusively  that  so  far  as  dollars  and  cents  are  concerned,  that 
single  city  could  buy  the  whole  State  of  North  Carolina,  and  by  right  of 
purchase,  if  sanctioned  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  by 
State  Constitutions,  hold  her  as  a  province.  In  1850,  there  were  in 
Massachusetts  1,861  native  white  and  free  colored  persons  over  twenty 
years  ot  a^e  who  could  not  read  and  write ;  in  the  same  year,  the  same 
class  of  persons  in  North  Carolina  numbered  80,063  ;  while  her  288,548 
slaves  were,  by  legislative  enactments,  kept  in  a  state  of  absolute  igno 
rance  and  unconditional  subordination. 

Hoping,  however,  and  believing,  that  a  large  majority  of  the  most 
respectable  and  patriotic  citizens  of  North  Carolina  have  resolved,  or 
will  soon  resolve,  with  unyielding  purpose,  to  cast  aside  the  great  ob 
stacle  that  impedes  their  progress,  and  bring  into  action  a  new  policy 
which  will  lead  them  from  poverty  and  ignorance  to  wealth  and  intel 
lectual  greatness,  and  which  will  shield  them  not  only  from  the  rebukes 
of  their  own  consciences,  but  also  from  the  just  reproaches  of  the  civil 
ized  world,  we  will,  for  the  present,  in  deference  to  their  feelings, 
forbear  the  further  enumeration  of  these  degrading  disparities,  and  turn 
our  attention  to 

PENNSYLVANIA    AND    SOUTH    CAROLINA. 

An  old  gentleman,  now  residing  in  Charleston,  told  us,  but  a  short 
while  since,  that  he  had  a  distinct  recollection  of  the  time  when 
Charleston  imported  foreign  fabrics  for  the  Philadelphia  trade,  and 
when,  on  a  certain  occasion,  his  mother  went  into  a  store  on  Market 
street  to  select  a  silk  dress  for  herself,  the  merchant,  unable  to  please 
her  fancy,  persuaded  her  to  postpone  the  selection  for  a  few  days,  or 
until  the  arrival  of  a  new  stock  of  superb  styles  and  fashions  which'  he 
had  recently  purchased  in  the  metropolis  of  South  Carolina,  This  was 
all  very  proper.  Charleston  had  a  spacious  harbor,  a  central  position, 
and  a  mild  climate  ;  and  from  priority  of  settlement  and  business  connec 
tions,  to  say  nothing  of  other  advantages,  she  enjoyed  greater  facilities 
for  commercial  transactions  than  Philadelphia.  She  had  a  right  to  get 


FKEK    AND    THE    SLAVE   STATES.  11 

custom  wherever  she  could  find  it,  and  in  securing  so  valuable  a  custo 
mer  as  the  Quaker  City,  she  exhibited  no  small  degree  of  laudable  enter 
prise.  But  why  did  she  not  maintain  her  supremacy  ?  If  the  answer 
to  this  query  is  not  already  in  the  reader's  mind,  it  will  suggest  itself 
before  he  peruses  the  whole  of  this  work.  For  the  present,  suffice  it  to 
say,  that  the  cause  of  her  shameful  insignificance  and  decline  is  essen 
tially  the  same  that  has  thrown  every  other  southern  city  and  State  in 
the  rear  of  progress,  and  rendered  them  tributary,  in  a  commercial  and 
manufacturing  point  of  view,  almost  entirely  tributary,  to  the  more 
sagacious  and  enterprising  States  and  cities  of  the  North. 

A  most  unfortunate  day  was  that  for  the  Palmetto  State,  and  indeed 
for  the  whole  South,  when  the  course  of  trade  was  changed,  and  she 
found  herself  the  retailer  of  foreign  and  domestic  goods,  imported  and 
vended  by  wholesale  merchants  at  the  North.  Philadelphia  ladies  no 
longer  look  to  the  South  for  late  fashions,  and  fine  silks  and  satins ;  no 
Quaker  dame  now  wears  drab  apparel  of  Charleston  importation.  Like 
all  other  centres  of  trade  in  our  disreputable  part  of  the  confederacy, 
the  commercial  emporium  of  South  Carolina  is  sick  and  impoverished; 
her  silver  cord  has  been  loosed  ;  her  golden  bowl  has  been  broken ;  and 
her  unhappy  people,  without  proper  or  profitable  employment,  poor  in 
pocket,  and  few  in  number,  go  mourning  or  loafing  about  the  streets. 
Her  annual  importations  are  actually  less  now  than  they  were  a  century 
ago,  when  South  Carolina  was  the  second  commercial  province  on  the 
continent,  Virginia  being  the  first. 

In  1760,  as  we  learn  from  Mr.  Benton's  "Thirty  Years'  View," 
the  foreign  imports  into  Charleston  were  $2,602,000;  in  1855,  they 
amounted  to  only  $1,750,000  !  In  1854,  the  imports  into  Philadelphia, 
which,  in  foreign  trade,  ranks  at  present  but  fourth  among  the  commer 
cial  cities  of  the  Union,  were  $21,963,021.  In  1850,  the  products  of 
manufactures,  mining,  and  the  mechanic  arts,  in  Pennsylvania,  amounted 
to  $155,044,910;  the  products  of  the  same  in  South  Carolina,  amounted 
to  only  $7,063,513. 

As  shown  by  the  census  report  of  1850,  which  was  prepared  under 
the  superintendence  of  a  native  of  South  Carolina,  who  certainly  will 
not  be  suspected  of  injustice  to  his  own  section  of  the  country — the 
Southern  States — the  cash  value  of  all  the  farms,  farming  implements, 
and  machinery  in  Pennsylvania,  was  $422,598,640;  the  value  of  the 
same  in  South  Carolina,  in  the  same  year,  was  only  $86,518,038.  From 
a  compendium  of  the  same  census,  we  learn  that  the  value  of  all  the 
real  and  personal  property  in  Pennsylvania,  actual  property,  no  slaves, 
amounted  to  $729,144,998;  the  value  of  the  same  in  South  Carolina,  in 
cluding  the  estimated — we  were  about  to  say  fictitious — value  of  384,925 
negroes,  amounted  to  only  $288,257,694.  Wo  have  not  been  able  to 
'•Main  the  figures  necessary  to  show  the  exact  value  of  the  real  and  per 


12  COMPARISONS    BETWKEN    THE 

sonal  estate  in  Philadelphia,  but  the  amount  is  estimated  to  be  not  less 
than  $300,000,000;  and  as,  in  1859,  there  were  408,762  free  inhabitants 
in  the  single  city  of  Philadelphia,  against  283,544  of  the  same  class  in 
the  whole  State  of  South  Carolina,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  former  is 
more  powerful  than  the  latter,  and  far  ahead  of  her  in  all  the  elements 
of  genuine  and  permanent  superiority.  In  Pennsylvania,  in  1850,  the 
annual  income  of  public  schools  amounted  to  $1,348,249  ;  the  same  in 
South  Carolina,  in  the  same  year,  amounted  to  only  $200,600;  in  the 
former  State  there  were  393  libraries  other  than  private,  in  the  latter 
only  26 ;  in  Pennsylvania  310  newspapers  and  periodicals  were  pub 
lished,  circulating  84,898,672  copies  annually;  in  South  Carolina  only  46 
newspapers  and  periodicals  were  published,  circulating  but  7,145,930 
copies  per  annum. 

The  incontrovertible  facts  we  have  thus  far  presented  are,  we  think, 
amply  sufficient,  both  in  number  and  magnitude,  to  bring  conviction  to 
the  mind  of  every  candid  reader,  that  there  is  something  wrong,  socially, 
politically  and  morally  wrong,  in  the  policy  under  which  the  South  has 
so  long  loitered  and  languished.  Else,  how  is  it  that  the  North,  under 
the  operations  of  a  policy  directly  the  opposite  of  ours,  has  surpassed 
us  in  almost  everything  great  and  good,  and  left  us  standing  before  the 
world,  an  object  of  merited  reprehension  and  derision? 

For  one,  we  are  heartily  ashamed  of  the  inexcusable  weakness,  inertia 
and  dilapidation  everywhere  so  manifest  throughout  our  native  sec 
tion;  but  the  blame'  properly  attaches  itself  to  an  usurping  minority 
of  the  people,  and  we  are  determined  that  it  shall  rest  where  it 
belongs.  More  on  this  subject,  however,  after  a  brief  but  general  sur 
vey  of  the  inequalities  and  disparities  that  exist  between  those  two 
grand  divisions  of  the  country,  which,  without  reference  to  the  situation 
that  any  part  of  their  territory  bears  to  the  cardinal  points,  are  every 
day  becoming  more  familiarly  known  by  the  appropriate  appellation  of 

THE  FEEE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES. 

It  is  a  fact  well  known  to  every  intelligent  Southerner  that  we  are 
compelled  to  go  to  the  North  for  almost  every  article  of  utility  and 
adornment,  from  matches,  shoepegs  and  paintings  up  to  cotton-mills, 
steamships  and  statuary ;  that  we  have  no  foreign  trade,  no  princely 
merchants,  nor  respectable  artists;  that,  in  comparison  with  the  free 
states,  we  contribute  nothing  to  the  literature,  polite  arts  and  inventions 
of  the  age  ;  that,  for  want  of  profitable  employment  at  home,  large  num 
bers  of  our  native  population  find  themselves  necessitated  to  emigrate  to 
the  West,  whilst  the  free  states  retain  not  only  the  larger  proportion  of 
those  born  within  their  own  limits,  but  induce,  annually,  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  foreigners  to  settle  and  remain  amongst  them  ;  that  almost 


FREE   AND   THE   SLAVE    STATES.  13 

everything  produced  at  the  North  meets  with  ready  sale,  while,  ut  the 
same  time,  there  is  no  demand,  even  among  our  own  citizens,  for  tho 
productions  of  Southern  industry ;  that,  owing  to  the  absence  of  a  pro 
per  system  of  business  amongst  us,  the  North  becomes,  in  one  way  or 
another,  the  proprietor  and  dispenser  of  all  our  floating  wealth,  and  that 
we  are  dependent  on  Northern  capitalists  for  the  means  necessary  to 
build  our  railroads,  canals  and  other  public  improvements ;  that  if  wo 
want  to  visit  a  foreign  country,  even  though  it  may  lie  directly  south  of 
ns,  we  find  no  convenient  way  of  getting  there  except  by  taking  passage 
through  a  Northern  port ;  and  that  nearly  all  the  profits  arising  from 
the  exchange  of  commodities,  from  insurance  and  shipping  offices,  and 
from  the  thousand  and  one  industrial  pursuits  of  the  country,  accrue  to 
the  North,  and  are  there  invested  in  the  erection  of  those  magnificent 
cities  and  stupendous  works  of  art  which  dazzle  the  eyes  of  the  South, 
and  attest  the  superiority  of  free  institutions ! 

The  North  is  the  Mecca  of  our  merchants,  and  to  it  they  must  and  do 
make  two  pilgrimages  per  annum — one  in  the  spring  and  one  in  the  fall. 
All  our  commercial,  mechanical,  manufactural,  and  literary  supplies 
come  from  there.  We  want  Bibles,  brooms,  buckets  and  books,  and 
we  go  to  the  North ;  we  want  pens,  ink,  paper,  wafers  and  envelopes, 
and  we  go  to  the  North ;  we  want  shoes,  hats,  handkerchiefs,  umbrellas 
and  pocket  knives,  and  we  go  to  the  North ;  we  want  furniture,  crockery, 
glassware  and  pianos,  and  we  go  to  the  North ;  we  want  toys,  primer*, 
school-books,  fashionable  apparel,  machinery,  medicines,  tomb-stones, 
and  a  thousand  other  things,  and  we  go  to  the  North  for  them  all. 
Instead  of  keeping  our  money  in  circulation  at  home,  by  patronizing  our 
own  mechanics,  manufacturers,  and  laborers,  we  send  it  all  away  to  the 
North,  and  there  it  remains ;  it  never  falls  into  our  hands  again. 

In  one  way  or  another  we  are  more  or  less  subservient  to  the  North 
every  day  of  our  lives.  In  infancy  we  are  swaddled  in  Northern  muslin  ; 
in  childhood  we  are  humored  with  Northern  gewgaws  ;  in  youth  we  are 
instructed  out  of  Northern  books ;  at  the  age  of  maturity  we  sow  our 
*'  wild  oats  "  on  Northern  soil ;  in  middle-life  we  exhaust  our  wealth, 
energies  and  talents  in  the  dishonorable  vocation  of  entailing  our  depen 
dence  on  our  children  and  on  our  children's  children,  and,  to  the  neglect 
of  our  own  interests  and  the  interests  of  those  around  us,  in  giving  aid 
and  succor  to  every  department  of  Northern  power ;  in  the  decline  of 
life  we  remedy  our  eye-sight  with  Northern  spectacles,  and  support  our 
infirmities  with  Northern  canes;  iii  old  age  wo  are  drugged  with 
Northern  physic;  and,  finally,  when  we  die,  our  inanimate  bodies, 
shrouded  in  Northern  cambric,  are  stretched  upon  the  bier,  borne  to  the 
grave  in  a  Northern  carriage,  entombed  with  a  Northern  spade,  and 
memorized  with  a  Northern  slab ! 

But  it  can  hardly  be  necessary  t»  say  more  in   illustration  of  th'> 


14:  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN    THE 

unmanly  and  unnational  dependence,  which  is  so  glaucg  that  it  can  not 
fail  to  be  apparent  to  even  the  most  careless  and  superficial  observer. 
All  the  world  sees,  or  ought  to  see,  that  in  a  commercial,  mechanical, 
manufactural,  financial,  and  literary  point  of  view,  we  are  as  helpless  as 
babes;  that,  in  comparison  with  the  Free  States,  our  agricultural 
resources  have  been  greatly  exaggerated,  misunderstood  and  mis 
managed;  and  that,  instead  of  cultivating  among  ourselves  a  wise  policy, 
of  mutual  assistance  and  cooperation  with  respect  to  individuals,  and 
of  self-reliance  with  respect  to  the  South  at  large,  instead  of  giving  coun 
tenance  and  encouragement  to  the  industrial  enterprises  projected  among 
us,  and  instead  of  building  up,  aggrandizing  and  beautifying  our  own 
States,  cities  and  towns,  we  have  been  spending  our  substance  at  the 
North,  and  are  daily  augmenting  and  strengthening  the  very  power 
which  now  has  us  so  completely  under  its  thumb. 

It  thus  appears,  in  view  of  the  preceding  statistical  facts  and  argu 
ments,  that  the  South,  at  one  time  the  superior  of  the  North  iii  almost 
all  the  ennobling  pursuits  and  conditions  of  life,  has  fallen  far  behind 
her  competitor,  and  now  ranks  more  as  the  dependency  of  a  mother 
country  than  as  the  equal  confederate  of  free  and  independent  States. 
Following  the  order  of  our  task,  the  next  duty  that  devolves  upon  us  is 
to  trace  out  the  causes  which  have  conspired  to  bring  about  this  impor 
tant  change,  and  to  place  on  record  the  reasons,  as  we  understand  them. 

WHY    THE    NOETII    HAS    SURPASSED    THE    SOUTH. 

And  now  that  we  have  come  to  the  very  heart  and  soul  of  our  sub 
ject,  we  feel  no  disposition  to  mince  matters,  but  mean  to  speak  plainly 
and  to  the  point,  without  any  equivocation,  mental  reservation,  or  secret 
evasion  whatever.  The  son  of  a  venerated  parent,  who,  while  he  lived, 
was  a  considerate  and  merciful  slaveholder,  a  native  of  the  South, 
born  and  bred  in  North  Carolina,  of  a  family  whose  home  has  been  in 
the  valley  of  the  Yadkin  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  a  Southerner 
by  instinct  and  by  all  the  influences  of  thought,  habits  and  kindred, 
and  with  the  desire  and  fixed  purpose  to  reside  permanently  within  the 
limits  of  the  South,  and  with  the  expectation  of  dying  there  also — wo 
feel  that  we  have  the  right  to  express  our  opinion,  however  humble  <>»• 
unimportant  it  may  be,  on  any  and  every  question  that  affects  the  pub 
lic  good;  and,  so  help  us  God,  "sink  or  swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or 
perish,"  we  are  determined  to  exercise  that  right  with  manly  firmness, 
and  without  fear,  favor  or  affection. 

And  now  to  the  point.  In  our  opinion,  an  opinion  which  has  been 
formed  from  data  obtained  by  assiduous  researches,  and  comparisons, 
from  laborious  investigation,  logical  reasoning,  and  earnest  reflection, 
the  causes  which  have  impeded  the  progress  and  prosperity  of  the  South, 
which  have  dwindled  our  commerce  and  other  similar  pursuits,  into  the 


FKEE    AND    THE   SLAVE   STATES.  15 

most  contemptible  insignificance ;  sunk  a  large  majority  of  our  people 
in  galling  poverty  and  ignorance,  rendered  a  small  minority  conceited 
and  tyrannical,  and  driven  the  rest  away  from  their  homes ;  entailed 
upon  us  a  humiliating  dependence  on  the  Free  States ;  disgraced  us  in 
the  recesses  of  our  own  soulr,  and  brought  us  under  reproach  in  the 
eyes  of  all  civilized  and  enlightened  nations — may  all  be  traced  to  one 
common  source,  and  there  find  solution  in  the  most  hateful  and  horrible 
word,  that  was  ever  incorporated  into  the  vocabulary  of  human  economy 
— Slavery. 

Beared  amidst  the  institution  of  slavery,  believing  it  to  be  wrong 
both  in  principle  and  in  practice,  and  having  seen  and  felt  its  evil  influ 
ences  upon  individuals,  communities  and  states,  we  deem  it  a  duty,  no 
less  than  a  privilege,  to  enter  our  protest  against  it,  and,  as  a  Southern 
man,  to  use  all  constitutional  means  and  our  most  strenuous  efforts  to 
overturn  and  abolish  it. 

Our  repugnance  to  slavery  springs  from  no  one-sided  idea,  or  sickly 
sentimentality.  We  have  not  been  hasty  in  making  up  our  mind  on 
the  subject;  we  have  jumped  at  no  conclusions;  we  have  acted  with 
perfect  calmness  and  deliberation;  we  have  carefully  considered,  and 
examined  the  reasons  for  and  against  the  institution,  and  have  also  taken 
into  account  the  probable  consequences  of  our  decision.  The  more  we 
investigate  the  matter,  the  deeper  becomes  the  conviction  that  we  are 
right;  and  with  this  to  impel  and  sustain  us,  we  pursue  our  labor  with 
love,  with  hope,  and  with  constantly  renewing  vigor. 

That  we  shall  encounter  opposition  we  consider  as  certain ;  perhaps 
we  may  even  be  subjected  to  insult  and  violence.  From  the  cruel  and 
conceited  defenders  of  slavery  we  could  look  for  nothing  less.  But  we 
shall  shrink  from  no  responsibility,  and  do  nothing  unbecoming  a  man ; 
we  know  how  to  repel  indignity,  and  if  assaulted,  shall  not  fail  to  make 
the  blow  recoil  upon  the  aggressor's  head.  The  road  we  have  to  travel 
may  be  a  rough  one,  but  no  impediment  shall  cause  us  to  falter  in  our 
course.  The  line  of  our  duty  is  clearly  defined,  and  it  is  our  intention 
to  follow  it  faithfully,  or  die  in  the  attempt. 

But,  thanks  to  heaven,  we  have  no  ominous  forebodings  of  the  result 
of  the  contest  now  pending  between  Liberty  and  Slavery  in  this  confeder 
acy.  Though  neither  a  prophet  nor  the  son  of  a  prophet,  our  vision  is 
sufficiently  penetrative  to  divine  the  future  so  for  as  to  be  able  to  set 
that  the  "peculiar  institution  "  has  but  a  short  and,  as  heretofore,  inglori 
ous  existence  before  it.  Time,  the  righter  of  every  wrong,  is  ripening 
events  for  the  desired  consummation  of  our  labors  and  the  fulfillment  of 
our  cherished  hopes.  Each  revolving  year  brings  nearer  the  inevitable 
crisis.  The  sooner  it  comes  the  better  ;  may  heaven,  through  our  hum- 
Isle  efforts,  hasten  its  advent. 

The  first  and  most  sacred  duty  of  every  Southerner,  who  has  the  honor 


16  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN    TIIK 

and  the  interest  of  his  country  at  heart,  is  to  declare  himself  an  unquuu- 
tied  and  uncompromising  opponent  of  slavery.  No  conditional  or  half 
way  declaration  will  avail;  no  mere  threatening  demonstration  wil 
succeed.  With  those  who  desire  to  be  instrumental  in  bringing  about 
the  triumph  of  liberty  over  slavery,  there  should  be  neither  evasion, 
vacillation,  nor  equivocation.  We  should  listen  to  no  modifying  terms 
.T  compromises  that  may  be  proposed  by  the  proprietors  of  the  unprofit 
able  and  ungodly  institution.  Nothing  short  of  the  complete  abolition 
of  slavery  can  save  the  South  from  falling  into  the  vortex  of  utter  ruin. 
Too  long  have  we  yielded  a  submissive  obedience  to  the  tyrannical  domi 
nation  of  an  inflated  oligarchy ;  too  long  have  we  tolerated  their  arrogance 
and  self-conceit ;  too  long  have  we  submitted  to  their  unjust  and  savage 
exactions.  Let  us  now  wrest  from  them  the  sceptre  of  power,  estab 
lish  liberty  and  equal  rights  throughout  the  land,  and  henceforth 
and  forever  guard  our  legislative  halls  from  the  pollutions  and  usurpa 
tions  of  pro-slavery  demagogues. 

We  have  stated,  in  a  cursory  manner,  the  reasons,  as  we  understand 
them,  why  the  North  has  surpassed  the  South,  and  have  endeavored  to 
show,  we  think  successfully,  that  the  highest  future  welfare  of  the  South 
can  be  attained  only  by  the  speedy  abolition  of  slavery.  We  will  not, 
however,  rest  the  case  exclusively  on  our  own  arguments,  but  will  again 
appeal  to  incontrovertible  facts  and  statistics  to  sustain  us  in  our  conclu 
sions.  But  before  we  do  so,  we  desire  to  fortify  ourself  against  a  charge 
that  is  too  frequently  made  by  careless  and  superficial  readers.  We 
allude  to  the  objections  so  often  urged  against  the  use  of  tabular  state 
ments  and  statistical  facts.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  however,  that  those 
objections  never  come  from  thorough  scholars  or  profound  thinkers. 
Among  the  majority  of  mankind,  the  science  of  statistics  is  only  begin 
ning  to  be  appreciated ;  when  well  understood,  it  will  be  recognized  as 
one  of  the  most  important  branches  of  knowledge,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  be  introduced  and  taught  as  an  indispensable  element  of  practical 
education  in  all  our  principal  institutions  of  learning.  One  of  the  most 
vigorous  and  popular  transatlantic  writers  of  the  day,  Win.  C.  Taylor, 
LL.D.,  of  Dublin,  says : 

"  The  cultivation  of  statistics  must  be  the  source  of  all  future  imorovement  in  the 
science  of  political  economy,  because  it  is  to  the  table  of  tlie  statistician  that  the 
».'c,:momist  must  look  for  his  facts;  and  all  speculations  not  founded  upon  facts, 
though  they  may  be  admired  and  applauded  when  first  propounded,  will,  in  the  end, 
assuredly  be  forgotten.  Statistical  science  may  almost  be  regarded  as  the  creation 
of  this  age.  The  word  statistics  was  invented  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century  by 
a  German  professor.*  to  express  a  summary  view  of  the  physical,  moral,  and  social 
condition  of  States  ;  he  justly  remarked,  that  a  numerical  statement  of  the  extent, 
density  of  population,  imports,  exports,  revenues,  etc.,  of  a  country,  more  perfectly 
explained  its  social  condition  than  general  statements,  however  graphic  or  however 
accurate.  When  such  statements  began  to  be  collected,  and  exhibited  in  a  popular 
form,  it  was  soon  discovered  that  the  political  and  economical  sciences  were  likely 


*  Achenwall,  a  native  af  Elhing,  Prussia.     Born  1719,  died  1792. 


FREE  AND  THE  6LAVE  STATES.  17 

to  gain  the  position  of  physical  sciences  ;  that  is  to  say,  they  were  about  to  obtain 
records  of  observation,  which  would  test  the  accuracy  of  recognized  principles,  and 
lead  to  the  discovery  of  new  modes  of  action.  But  the  great  object  of  this  new 
science  is  to  lead  to  the  knowledge  of  human  nature  ;  that  is,  to  ascertain  the  gen 
eral  course  of  operation  of  man's  mental  and  moral  faculties,  and  to  furnish  us  with 
a  correct  standard  of  judgment,  by  enabling  us  to  determine  the  average  amount  of 
the  past  as  a  guide  to  the  average  probabilities  of  the  future.  This  science  is  yet  in 
its  infancy,  but  has  already  produced  the  most  beneficial  effects.  The  accuracy  of 
the  tables  of  life  have  rendered  the  calculations  of  rates  of  insurance  a  matter  of 
much  greater  certainty  than  they  were  heretofore  ;  the  system  of  keeping  the  pub 
lic  accounts  has  been  simplified  and  improved  ;  and  finally,  the  experimental  sci 
ences  of  medicine  and  political  economy,  have  been  fixed  on  a  firmer  foundation 
than  could  be  anticipated  in  the  last  century.  Even  in  private  life  this  science  is 
likely  to  prove  of  immense  advantage,  by  directing  attention  to  the  collection  and 
registration  of  facts,  and  thus  preventing  the  formation  of  hasty  judgments  and 
erroneous  conclusions." 

The  compiler,  or  rather  the  superintendent  of  the  seventh  United 
States  census,  Prof.  De  Bow,  a  gentleman  of  more  than  ordinary  indus 
try  and  practical  learning,  who,  in  his  excellent  Review,  has,  from  time 
to  time,  displayed  much  commendable  zeal  in  his  efforts  to  develop  the 
industrial  resources  of  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  States,  and  who 
is,  perhaps,  the  greatest  statistician  in  the  country,  says : 

"  Statistics  are  far  from  being  the  barren  array  of  figures  ingeniously  and  labo 
riously  combined  into  columns  and  tables,  which  many  persons  are  apt  to  suppose 
them.  They  constitute  rather  the  ledger  of  a  nation,  in  which,  like  the  merchant 
in  his  books,  the  citizen  can  read,  at  one  view,  all  of  the  results  of  a  year  or  of  a 
period  of  years,  as  compared  with  other  periods,  and  deduce  the  profit  or  the  loss 
which  has  been  made,  in  morals,  education,  wealth  or  power." 

The  present  John  Jay,  of  New  York  (it  is  hoped  that  the  city  may 
never  be  without  a  John  Jay),  in  a  most  ingenious  and  masterly  pre 
sentation  of  "The  Statistics  of  American  Agriculture,"  recently  made 
i-n  the  form  of  an  address  before  the  American  Geographical  and  Sta 
tistical  Society,  says : 

uln  England,  the  labors  of  the  Statistical  Society,  whose  elaborate  and  most 
valuable  publications  enrich  our  library,  through  the  courtesy  of  the  British  govern 
ment,  have  aroused  the  attention  of  the  people  and  of  Parliament  to  the  truth,  that 
the  science  of  politics  finds  in  the  statistical  element  its  most  solid  foundation." 

Impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  propriety  of  introducing,  in  this  as 
well  as  in  the  succeeding  chapters  of  our  work,  a  number  of  tabular 
statements  exhibiting  the  comparative  growth  and  prosperity  of  the 
free  and  slave  States,  we  have  deemed  it  eminently  proper  to  adduce 
the  testimony  of  these  distinguished  authors  in  support  of  the  claims 
which  official  facts  and  accurate  statistics  lay  to  our  consideration. 
And  here  we  may  remark,  that  the  statistics  which  we  propose  to  offer, 
like  those  already  given,  have  been  obtained  from  official  sources,  and 
may,  therefore,  be  relied  on  as  correct.  The  object  we  have  in  view 
in  making  a  free  use  of  facts  and  figures,  if  not  already  apparent,  will 
soon  be  understood.  It  is  not  so  much  in  its  moral  and  religious 
!*S>eots  that  we  propose  to  discuss  the  question  of  slavery,  as  in  its 


18  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN    THE 

Social  an  1  political  character  and  influences.  To  say  nothing  of  the  sk 
and  the  shame  of  slavery,  we  believe  it  is  a  most  expensive  and  mprurit- 
able  institution  ;  and  if  our  brethren  of  the  South  will  but  throw  aside 
their  unfounded  prejudices  and  preconceived  opinions,  and  give  us  a 
fair  and  patient  hearing,  we  feel  confident  that  we  can  bring  them  to 
the  same  conclusion.  Indeed,  we  believe  we  shall  be  enabled — not  alont> 
by  our  own  contributions,  but  with  the  aid  of  incontestable  facts  and 
arguments  which  we  shall  introduce  from  other  sources — to  convince 
all  true-hearted,  candid  and  intelligent  Southerners,  who  may  chance  to 
read  our  book  (and  we  hope  their  name  may  be  legion),  that  slavery, 
and  nothing  but  slavery,  has  retarded  the  progress  and  prosperity  of 
our  portion  of  the  Union ;  depopulated  and  impoverished  our  cities  by 
forcing  the  more  industrious  and  enterprising  natives  of  the  soil  to  emi 
grate  to  the  free  States  ;  brought  our  domain  under  a  sparse  and  inert 
population  by  preventing  foreign  immigration  ;  made  us  tributary  to  tho 
North,  and  reduced  us  to  the  humiliating  condition  of  mere  provincial 
subjects  in  fact,  though  not  in  name.  "We  believe,  moreover,  that  every 
patriotic  Southerner  thus  convinced  will  feel  it  a  duty  he  owes  to  him 
self,  to  his  country,  and  to  his  God,  to  become  a  thorough,  inflexible, 
practical  Abolitionist.  So  mote  it  be  ! 

Now  to  our  figures.  Few  persons  have  an  adequate  idea  of  the  im 
portant  part  the  cardinal  numbers  are  now  playing  in  the  cause  of 
liberty.  They  are  working  wonders  in  the  South.  Intelligent  business 
men,  from  the  Chesapeake  to  the  Kio  Grande,  are  beginning  to  see  that 
slavery,  even  in  a  mercenary  point  of  view,  is  impolitic,  because  it  ia 
unprofitable.  Those  unique,  mysterious  little  Arabic  sentinels  on  the 
watch-towers  of  political  economy,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  T,  8,  9,  0,  have  joined 
forces,  allied  themselves  to  the  powers  of  freedom,  and  are  hemming  in 
and  combating  slavery  with  the  most  signal  success.  If  let  alone,  we 
have  no  doubt  the  digits  themselves  woidd  soon  terminate  the  existence 
of  human  slavery ;  but  we  do  not  mean  to  let  them  alone  ;  they  must 
not  have  all  the  honor  of  annihilating  the  monstrous  iniquity.  "We  want 
to  become  an  auxiliary  in  the  good  work,  and  facilitate  it.  The  libera 
tion  of  six  millions  of  non-slaveholding  whites  from  the  second  degreo 
of  slavery,  and  of  three  millions  of  miserable  kidnapped  negroes  from 
the  first  degree,  cannot  be  accomplished  too  soon.  That  it  was  not  ac 
complished  many  years  ago  is  our  misfortune.  It  now  behooves  us  to 
take  a  bold  and  determined  stand  in  defence  of  the  alienable  rights  of 
ourselves  and  of  our  fellow  men,  and  to  avenge  the  multiplicity  of 
wrongs,  social  and  political,  which  we  have  suffered  at  the  hands  o'f  a 
most  selfish  and  domineering  oligarchy.  It  is  madness  to  delay.  "We 
cannot  be  too  hasty  in  carrying  out  our  designs.  Precipitance  in  this 
matter  is  an  utter  impossibility.  Now  is  the  time  for  action ;  let  us 
work. 


FREE   AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES.  19 

By  taking  a  sort  of  inventory  of  the  agricultural  products  of  the  free 
and  slave  States  in  1850,  we  now  propose  to  correct  a  most  extraordi 
nary  and  mischievous  error  into  which  the  people  of  the  South  have 
unconsciously  fallen.  Agriculture,  it  is  well  known,  is  the  sole  boast  of 
the  South ;  and,  strange  to  say,  many  pro-slavery  Southerners  who,  in 
our  latitude,  pass  for  intelligent  men,  are  so  puffed  up  with  the  idea  of 
our  importance  in  this  respect,  that  they  speak  of  the  North  as  a  sterile 
region,  unfit  for  cultivation,  and  quite  dependent  on  the  South  for  the 
necessaries  of  life  I  Such  gross,  rampant  ignorance  deserves  no  audience. 
We  can  prove  that  the  North  produces  greater  quantities  of  breadstuff's 
than  the  South.  Figures  shall  show  the  facts.  Properly,  the  South  has 
nothing  left  to  boast  of;  the  North  has  surpassed  her  in  everything, 
and  is  going  further  and  further  ahead  of  her  every  day.  "VVe  ask  the 
reader's  careful  attention  to  the  following  tables,  which  we  have  pre 
pared  at  no  little  cost  of  time  and  trouble,  and  which,  when  duly  con 
sidered  in  connection  with  the  foregoing  and  subsequent  portions  of  our 
work,  will,  we  believe,  carry  conviction  to  the  mind  that  the  down 
ward  tendency  of  the  South  can  le  arrested  only  by  the  abolition  of 
slavery. 


20 


COMPARISONS    BETWEEN    THE 


AGRICULTURAL  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FREE  STATES  — 1850. 


STATES. 

Wheat, 

bushels. 

Oats, 
bushels. 

Indian  Corn, 

bushels. 

Potatoes, 
(I.  and  S.) 

bushels. 

; 
Rye, 

bushels. 

Biirley, 
bushels. 

17  228 

1<>  035 

10  ^99 

9  71° 

Connecticut  

41,762 

1,258,738 

1,935,043 

2,689,805 

600,893 

19,i»99 

Illinois  

9,414,575 
6,214  45S 

10,087,241 
5  655  01  4 

57,646,984 
52  964  363 

2,672.294 

2  285  048 

83,364 

78,792 

110,795 
45  483 

1  530  581 

1  524  345 

8  656  799 

2S2  363 

19  916 

25  093 

Maine  

296,259 

2,181,037 

1,750,056 

3,436,040 

102,916 

151,731 

Massachusetts  .., 
Michigan  

31,211 
4.925,889 
185  658 

1,165,146 
2,866,056 
973  381 

2,345,490 
5,641,420 
1  573  670 

3,585,384  • 
2,361,074 
4  :j()7  919 

481,021 
105,871 
183  117 

112,385 
75,249 
70  c>56 

1  601  190 

3  378  063 

8  759  704 

3  715  251 

1  255  578 

6  492 

New  York  

13,121,498 

26,552,814 

17,S5S  400 

15  403,997 

4148  182 

3  5S5  009 

14  487  351 

13  472  749 

59  078  6% 

5  245  760 

495*953 

354  5*58 

15367.691 

21  538  156 

19'S35'214 

6  032  904 

4  805  160 

165  5S4 

49 

215232 

539  201 

651  029 

26  409 

18  875 

Vermont  

535,955 
4,256,131 

2,307,734 
3,414,672 

2.032,396 
1  988  979 

4,951,014 
1,402,956 

176,233 
81,253 

42,150 
209  692 

72,157,486 

96,590,371 

242,618,650 

59,033,170 

12,574,623 

5,002,013 

AGRICULTURAL  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  SLAVE   STATES  — 1850. 


STATES. 

Wheat, 

bushels. 

Oats, 
bushels. 

Indian  Corn, 
bushels. 

Potatoes, 
(I.  and  S.) 
bushels. 

Rye, 

bushels. 

Baney, 
bushels. 

294,044 

2  965  696 

28  754  048 

5  721  205 

17  261 

3  953 

199  639 

656  183 

8  893  939 

981  981 

8  047 

177 

D    1      -    -      * 

482  511 

604  518 

3  145  542 

805  985 

8*066 

56 

Florida                     

1,027 

66,586 

1,996  809 

765  054 

1  152 

1,088  534 

3,820,044 

30  080  099 

7  213  807 

53  750 

11  501 

2  142  822 

8  201,311 

58  672  591 

2  490  666 

415  073 

95  343 

Louisiana  

'       417 
4,494,680 

89,637 
2,242,151 

10,266,373 
10,749,858 

1,524,085 
973  932 

'475 

226  014 

745 

137,990 

1.503,288 

22  446  552 

5  003  277 

9  606 

2'7S 

2  981  652 

5  278,079 

86  214  537 

1  274  511 

44  263 

q  631 

North  Carolina  

2,130,102 

4,052,078 

27,941,051 

5,716,027 

229  563 

2  735 

1,066,277 

2,322,155 

16,271,454 

4,473,960 

43  790 

4  583 

1,619,386 

7,703,086 

52,276  223 

3  845  560 

89  137 

41,729 

199,017 

6  028  876 

1  4%  803 

3  108 

4  776 

11,212,616 

10,179,144 

35,254,319 

3,130,567 

458,930 

25  437 

27,904,476 

49,882,979 

348,992,282 

44,847,420 

1,608,240 

161,907 

FREE   AND   THE   SLATE    STATES. 


TAJB3L.E    3. 

AGRICULTURAL  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FREE  STATES  — 1850. 


STATES. 

Buckwheat,  • 

bushels. 

Beans  &  Peas, 
bushels. 

Clov.  &  Grass 
Seeds,  bush. 

Flaxseed, 
bushels. 

Value  of  Gar 
den  Products. 

Value  < 
chard  P    /:.j. 

California  
Connecticut.  .  . 
Illinois 

229,297 
184  509 

2,292 
19,090 
82  814 

30,469 
17807 

703 

10787 

$75,275 
196,874 
127  494 

$  7,70C 
1*5,118 
446  049 

Indiana  

149,740 

35,773 

30,271 

86,888 

72',864 

324  940 

Iowa  
Maine  ».. 
Massachusetts 
Michigan  .... 
N.  Hampshire^. 
New  Jersey..*. 
N  ew  York  .... 
Ohio  

52,516 
104,523 
105,895 
472,917 
65,265 
878,984 
3,183,955 
638,060 

4,475 
205,541 
43,709 
74,254 
70,856 
14,174 
741,546 
60,168 

2,438 
18,311 
6,087 
26,274 
8,900 
91,331 
184,715 
140,501 

1,959 
580 
72 
519 
189 
16,525 
57,963 
188,880 

8,848 
122,387 
600,020 
14,738 
56,810 
475,242 
912,047 
214  004 

8,434 
342,865 
463,995 
132,650 
248,560 
607,268 
1,761,950 
695  921 

Pennsylvania, 
llhode  Island.. 
Termont  
Wisconsin  

2,193,692 
1,245 
209,819 
79,878 

55,231 
6,846 
104,649 
20,657 

178,943 
5,036 
15,696 
5,486 

41,728 

'"939 
1,191 

688,714 
98,298 
18,853 
32,142 

723,389 
63,994 
315,255 
4,S2S 

8,550,245 

1,542,295 

762,265 

358,923 

13,714,605 

$6,332,914 

AGRICULTURAL  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  SLAVE  STATES  — 1850. 


STATES. 

Buckwheat, 
bushels. 

Beans  &  Peas, 
bushels. 

Clov.  &  Grass 
Seeds,  bush. 

Flaxseed, 
bushels. 

Value  of  Gar 
den  Products. 

Value  of  Or- 
chard  Prod'ts. 

Alabama  

848 

892,701 

685 

69 

$84,821 

$15,409 

Arkansas  

175 

285,788 

526 

321 

17,150 

40,141 

Delaware  

8,615 

4,120 

3,928 

904 

12,714 

46,574 

Florida  

55 

135,359 

2 

8,721 

1,280 

Georgia  

250 

1,142,011 

560 

622 

76,500 

92,776 

Kentucky  .... 

16,097 

202,574 

24,711 

75,801 

803,120 

106,230 

Louisiana  .... 

3 

161,732 

99 



148,329 

22,259 

Maryland  

103,671 

12,816 

17,778 

2,446 

200,869 

164,051 

Mississipni  

1,121 

1,072,757 

617 

26 

46,250 

50,405 

Missouri  

23,641 

46,017 

4,965 

13,696 

99,454 

514,711 

N.  Carolina..  . 

16,704 

1,584,252 

1,851 

38,196 

39,4(52 

84,843 

S.  Carolina  .  .  . 

283 

1,026,900 

406 

55 

47,286 

85,103 

Tennessee  

19,427 

869,321 

14,214 

18,904 

97,183  ;            52,894 

Texas  

59 

179,351 

10 

26 

12,354               12,505 

Virginia  

214,898 

521,579 

53,155 

52,318 

183,047 

:<77,137 

405,357 

7,637,227 

123,517 

203,484 

$1,377,260 

$1,855,827 

COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 


RECAPITULATION" — FREE   STATES. 


Wheat 


Oats 96,590.371 

Indian  Corn 242,018,050 

Potatoes  (I.  &  S.) 50.033.170 

Rye 12,574.623 

Barley 5,002.013 

Buckwheat 8,550.245 

Beans  and  Peas 1,542,295 

Clover  and  Grass  Seeds. . .  702,205 

Flax  Seeds 358,923 

Garden  Products 

Orchard  Products 


5,157,486  bushels    ©    150 $108,230,229 


40 38,030,148 

GO 145,571,190 

38 22,432,004 

100 12,574,023 

90 4.501,811 

5.0 4,275,122 

1  75 2,099,015 

3  00 2,280,795 

1  25 448,047 

3,714,005 

0,332,914 


Total 499,190,041  bushels,  valued  as  above,  at..  $351,709,703 


RECAPITULATION SLAVE  STATES. 


Wheat 27,004.470  bushels 

Oats 49,882.799  " 

Indian  Corn 348.992.282  " 

Potatoes  (1.  &  S.) 44,847,420  u 

Rye 1,008,240  " 

Barley 101.907  " 

Buckwheat 405,357  " 


Beans  and  Peas 7,037,227 

Clover  and  Grass  Seeds...          123.517 

Flax  Seeds 203,484 

Garden  Products 

Orchard  Products 


150 $41,850, 

40 19,953, 

00 209.395. 

38 17.042, 

1  00 1,008. 

90 145, 

50 202, 

1  75 13,305. 

3  00 370. 

1  25 254, 

1.377, 

1J355, 


714 
191 

309 
019 
240 
71'J 
078 
147 
551 
355 
200 
827 


Total 


481,706,889  bushels,  valued  as  above,  at..  $300,927,007 


TOTAL   DIFFERENCE— BUSHEL-MEASURE   PRODUCTS. 

Bushels.  Value. 

Free  States 499.190.041 $351,709.703 

Slave  States 481,766,889 306,927,007 


Balance  in  bushels 17,423,152    Difference  in  value $44,782,636 

So  much  for  the  boasted  agricultural  superiority  of  the  South  !  Mark 
well  tlio  balance  in  bushels,  and  the  difference  in  value !  Is  either  in 
favor  of  the  South  ?  No !  Are  both  in  favor  of  the  North  ?  Yes ! 
Here  we  have  unquestionable  proof  that  of  all  the  bushel-measure  pro 
ducts  of  the  nation,  the  free  States  produce  far  more  than  one-half ;  and 
it  is  worthy  of  particular  mention,  that  the  excess  of  Northern  products 
is  of  the  most  valuable  kind.  The  account  shows  a  balance  against  the 
South,  in  favor  of  the  North,  of  seventeen  million  four  hundred  and 
twenty -three  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty -two  lushels,  and  a  difference 
in  value  of  forty -four  million  seven  hundred  and  eighty -two  thousand  six 
hundred  and  thirty-six  dollars.  Please  bear  these  facts  in  mind,  for,  in 
order  to  show  positively  how  the  free  and  slave  States  do  stand  upon  the 
great  and  important  subject  of  rural  economy,  we  intend  to  take  an  ac 
count  of  all  the  other  products  of  the  soil,  of  the  live-stock  upon  farms, 
of  the  animals  slaughtered,  and,  in  fact,  of  every  item  of  husbandry  of 


FKEE  AND  TEE  SLAVE  STATES.  23 

the  two  sections ;  and  if,  in  bringing  our  tabular  exercises  to  a  close,  we 
find  slavery  gaining  upon  freedom — a  thing  it  has  never  yet  been  known 
to  do— we  shall,  as  a  matter  of  course,  see  that  the  above  amount  is 
transferred  to  the  credit  of  the  side  to  which  it  of  right  belongs. 

In  making  up  these  tables  we  have  two  objects  in  view  ;  the  first  is  to 
open  the  eyes  of  the  noii-slaveholders  of  the  South,  to  the  system  of  de 
ception,  that  has  been  so  long  practised  upon  them,  and  the  second  is  to 
show  slaveholders  themselves — we  have  reference  only  to  those  who  are 
not  too  perverse,  or  ignorant,  to  perceive  naked  truths — that  free  labor 
is  far  more  respectable,  profitable,  and  productive,  than  slave  labor.  In 
the  South,  unfortunately,  no  kind  of  labor  is  either  free  or  respectable. 
Every  white  man  who  is  under  the  necessity  of  earning  his  bread,  by 
the  sweat  of  his  brow,  or  by  manual  labor,  in  any  capacity,  no  matter 
how  unassuming  in  deportment,  or  exemplary  in  morals,  is  treated  as  if 
he  were  a  loathsome  beast,  and  shunned  with  disdain.  His  soul  maybe 
the  very  seat  of  honor  and  integrity,  yet  without  slaves — himself  a  slave 
— he  is  accounted  as  nobody,  and  would  be  deemed  intolerably  presump 
tuous,  if  he  dared  to  open  his  mouth,  even  so  wide  as  to  give  faint  utter 
ance  to  a  three-lettered  monosyllable,  like  yea  or  nay,  in  the  presence 
of  an  august  knight  of  the  whip  and  the  lash. 

There  are  few  Southerners  who  will  not  be  astonished  at  the  disclo 
sures  of  these  statistical  comparisons,  between  the  free  and  the  slave 
States.  That  the  astonishment  of  the  more  intelligent  and  patriotic 
non-slaveholders  will  be  mingled  with  indignation,  is  no  more  than  we 
anticipate.  We  confess  our  own  surprise,  and  deep  chagrin,  at  the  result 
of  our  investigations.  Until  we  examined  into  the  matter,  we  thought 
and  hoped  the  South  was  really  ahead  of  the  North  in  one  particular, 
that  of  agriculture ;  but  our  thoughts  have  been  changed,  and  our  hopes 
frustrated,  for  instead  of  finding  ourselves  the  possessors  of  a  single  ad 
vantage,  we  behold  our  dear  native  South  stripped  of  every  laurel,  and 
sinking  deeper  and  deeper  in  the  depths  of  poverty  and  shame ;  while, 
at  the  same  time,  we  see  the  North,  our  successful  rival,  extracting  and 
absorbing  the  few  elements  of  wealth  yet  remaining  among  us,  and 
rising  higher  and  higher  in  the  scale  of  fame,  fortune,  and  invulnerable 
power.  Thus  our  disappointment  gives  way  to  a  feeling  of  intense 
mortification,  and  our  soul  involuntarily,  but  justly,  we  believe,  crie? 
out  for  retribution  against  the  treacherous  slaveholding  legislators,  whc 
Lave  so  basely  and  unpatriotically  neglected  the  interests  of  their  poor 
white  constituents  and  bargained  away  the  rights  of  jjosterity.  Notwith 
standing  the  fact  that  the  white  non-slaveholders  of  the  South  are  in  the 
majority,  as  six  to  one,  they  have  never  yet  had  any  uncontrolled  part 
or  lot  in  framing  the  Jaws  under  which  they  live.  There  is  no  legisla 
tion  except  for  the  benefit  of  slavery,  and  slaveholders.  As  a  general 
rule,  poor  white  persons  are  regarded  with  less  esteem  and  attentiro 


24:  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN    THE 

than  negroes,  and  though  the  condition  of  the  latter  is  wretched  bej  ond 
description,  vast  numhers  of  the  former  are  infinitely  worse  off.  A  cun 
ningly  devised  mockery  of  freedom  is  guaranteed  to  them,  and  that  is  all. 
To  all  intents  and  purposes  they  are  disfranchised,  and  outlawed,  and  the 
only  privilege  extended  to  them,  is  a  shallow  and  circumscribed  partici 
pation  in  the  political  movements  that  usher  slaveholders  into  office. 

"We  have  not  breathed  away  nine  and  twenty  years  in  the  South, 
without  becoming  acquainted  with  the  demagogical  manceuverings  of  the 
oligarchy.  Their  intrigues  and  tricks  of  legerdemain  are  as  familiar  to 
us  as  household  words ;  in  vain  might  the  world  be  ransacked  for  a  more 
precious  junto  of  flatterers  arid  cajolers.  It  is  amusing  to  ignorance, 
amazing  to  credulity,  and  insulting  to  intelligence,  to  hear  them  in  their 
blustering  efforts  to  mystify  and  pervert  the  sacred  principles  of  liberty, 
and  turn  the  curse  of  slavery  into  a  blessing.  To  the  illiterate  poor 
whites — made  poor  and  ignorant  by  the  system  of  slavery — they 
hold  out  the  idea  that  slavery  is  the  very  bulwark  of  our  liberties, 
and  the  foundation  of  American  independence !  For  hours  at  a 
time,  day  after  day,  will  they  expatiate  upon  the  inexpressible  beauties 
and  excellences  of  this  great  free  and  independent  nation;  and  finally 
with  the  most  extravagant  gesticulations  and  rhetorical  flourishes,  con 
clude  their  nonsensical  ravings,  by  attributing  all  the  glory  and  pro 
sperity  of  the  country,  from  Maine  to  Texas,  and  from  Georgia  to  Cali 
fornia,  to  the  "invaluable  institutions  of  the  South!"  On  the  part  of 
the  intelligent  listener,  who  cherishes  a  high  regard  for  truth  and  jus 
tice,  it  requires  no  small  degree  of  patience  and  forbearance  to  rest 
quietly  under  the  incoherent,  truth-murdering  declamations  of  these 
subtle-tongued  champions  of  slavery. 

The  lords  of  the  lash  are  not  only  absolute  masters  of  the  blacks,  who 
are  bought  and  sold,  and  driven  about  like  so  many  cattle,  but  they  are 
also  the  oracles  and  arbiters  of  all  non-slaveholding  whites,  whose  free 
dom  is  merely  nominal,  and  whose  unparalleled  illiteracy  and  degrada 
tion  is  purposely  and  fiendishly  perpetuated.  How  little  the  "poor 
white  trash,"  the  great  majority  of  the  Southern  people,  know  of  the 
real  condition  of  the  country,  is,  indeed,  sadly  astonishing.  The  truth  is, 
they  know  nothing  of  public  measures,  and  little  of  private  affairs,  except 
what  their  imperious  masters,  the  slave-drivers,  condescend  to  toll,  and 
that  is  but  precious  little,  and  even  that  little,  always  garbled  and  one 
sided,  is  never  told  except  in  public  harangues ;  for  the  liarijjLty  cava 
liers  of  shackles  and  handcuffs  will  not  degrade  themselves  by  holding 
private  converse  with  those  who  have  neither  dimes  nor  hereditary 
rights  in  human  flesh. 

Whenever  it  pleases,  and  to  the  extent  it  pleases,  a  slaveholder  to 
become  communicative,  poor  whites  may  hear  with  fear  and  trembling, 
but  not  speak.  They  must  be  as  mum  as  dumb  brutes,  and  stand  in  awe 


FKEE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  25 

of  their  august  superiors,  or  be  crushed  with  stern  rebukes,  cruel 
oppressions,  or  downright  violence.  If  they  dare  to  think  for  them 
selves,  their  thoughts  must  be  forever  concealed.  The  expression  of 
any  sentiment  at  all  conflicting  with  the  gospel  of  slavery,  dooms  them 
at  once  in  the  community  in  which  they  live,  and  then,  whether  willing 
or  unwilling,  they  are  obliged  to  become  heroes,  martyrs,  or  exiles. 
They  may  thirst  for  knowledge,  but  there  is  no  Moses  among  them  to 
smite  it  out  of  the  rocks  of  Horeb.  The  black  veil,  through  whoso 
almost  impenetrable  meshes  light  seldom  gleams,  has  long  been  pendan; 
over  their  eyes,  and  there,  with  fiendish  jealousy,  slaveholding  officiaL 
sedulously  guard  it.  Non-slaveholders  are  not  only  kept  in  ignorance 
of  what  is  transpiring  at  the  North,  but  they  are  continually  mis 
informed  of  what  is  going  on  even  in  the  South.  Never  were  the 
poorer  classes  of  a  people,  and  those  classes  so  largely  in  the  majority, 
and  all  inhabiting  the  same  country,  so  basely  duped,  so  adroitly  swindled 
or  so  unpardonably  outraged. 

It  is  expected  that  the  stupid  and  sequacious  masses,  the  white  victims 
of  slavery,  will  believe,  and,  as  a  general  thing,  they  do  believe,  what 
ever  the  slaveholders  tell  them ;  and  thus  it  is  that  they  are  cajoled 
into  the  notion  that  they  are  the  freest,  happiest,  and  most  intelligent 
people  in  the  world,  and  are  taught  to  look  with  prejudice  and  disap 
probation  upon  every  new  principle  or  progressive  movement.  Thus  it  ia, 
that  the  South,  woefully  inert  and  inventionless,  has  lagged  behind  the 
North,  and  is  now  weltering  in  the  cesspool  of  ignorance  and  degradation. 

We  have  already  intimated  that  the  opinion  is  prevalent  throughout 
the  South  that  the  free  States  are  quite  sterile  and  unproductive,  and 
that  they  are  mainly  dependent  on  us  for  breadstuff's  and  other  provi 
sions.  So  far  as  the  cereals,  fruits,  garden  vegetables  and  esculent  roots 
are  concerned,  we  have,  in  the  preceding  tables,  shown  the  utter  falsity 
of  this  opinion  ;  and  we  now  propose  to  show  that  it  is  equally  erro 
neous  in  other  particulars,  and  very  far  from  the  truth  in  the  general 
reckoning.  "We  can  prove,  and  we  intend  to  prove,  from  facts  in  our  pos 
session,  that  the  hay  crop  of  the  free  States  is  worth  considerably  more 
in  dollars  and  cents  than  all  the  cotton,  tobacco,  rice,  hay  and  hemp 
produced  in  the  fifteen  slave  States.  This  statement  may  strike  some  of 
our  readers  with  amazement,  and  others  may,  for  the  moment,  regard  it 
as  quite  incredible ;  but  it  is  true,  nevertheless,  and  we  shall  soon  pro 
ceed  to  confirm  it.  The  single  free  State  of  New  York  produces  more 
than  three  times  the  quantity  of  hay  that  is  produced  in  all  the  slave 
States.  Ohio  produces  a  larger  number  of  tons  than  all  the  Southern 
and  Southwestern  States,  and  so  does  Pennsylvania.  Vermont,  little 
and  unpretending  as  she  is,  does  the  same  thing,  with  the  exception  of 
Virginia.  Look  at  the  facts  as  presented  in  the  tables,  and  let  your 
own  eyes,  physical  and  intellectual,  confirm  you  in  the  truth. 

2 


26  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 

And  yet,  forsooth,  the  slaveholding  oligarchy  would  whip  us  into  the 
belief  that  agriculture  is  not  one  of  the  leading  and  lucrative  pursuits 
of  the  free  States,  that  the  soil  there  is  an  uninterrupted  barren  waste, 
and  that  our  Northern  brethren,  having  the  advantage  in  nothing  except 
wealth,  population,  inland  and  foreign  commerce,  manufactures,  mechan 
ism,  inventions,  literature,  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  their  concomitant 
branches  of  profitable  industry — miserable  objects  of  charity  ! — are  de 
pendent  on  us  for  the  necessaries  of  life. 

Next  to  Virginia,  Maryland  is  the  greatest  Southern  Lay-producing 
State ;  and  yet,  it  is  the  opinion  of  several  of  the  most  extensive  hay 
and  grain  dealers  in  Baltimore,  with  whom  we  have  conversed  on  the 
subject,  that  the  domestic  crop  is  scarcely  equal  to  one-third  the  demand, 
and  that  the  balance  required  for  home  consumption,  about  two-thirds, 
is  chiefly  brought  from  New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts. 
At  this  rate,  Maryland  receives  and  consumes  not  less  than  three  hun 
dred  and  fifteen  thousand  tons  of  Northern  hay  every  year;  and  this, 
as  we  are  informed  by  the  dealers  above-mentioned,  at  an  average  cost 
to  the  last  purchaser,  by  the  time  it  is  stowed  in  the  mow,  of  at  least 
twenty-five  dollars  per  ton;  it  would  thus  appear  that  this  most  popular 
and  valuable  provender,  one  of  the  staple  commodities  of  the  North, 
commands  a  market  in  a  single  slave  State,  to  the  amount  of  seven  mil 
lion  eight  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  per  annum. 

In  this  same  State  of  Maryland,  less  than  one  million  of  dollars'  worth 
of  cotton  finds  a  market,  the  whole  number  of  bales  sold  here  in  1850 
amounting  to  only  twenty-three  thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty- 
five,  valued  at  seven  hundred  and  forty-six  thousand  four  hundred 
dollars.  Briefly,  then,  and  in  round  numbers,  we  may  state  the  case 
thus:  Maryland  buys  annually  seven  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  hay 
from  the  North,  and  one  million  of  dollars'  worth  of  cotton  from  the 
South.  Let  slaveholders  and  their  fawning  defenders  read,  ponder  and 
compare. 

The  exact  quantities  of  Northern  hay,  rye,  and  buckwheat  flour,  Irish 
potatoes,  fruits,  clover  and  grass  seeds,  and  other  products  of  the  soil, 
received  and  consumed  in  all  the  slaveholding  States,  we  have  no  means 
of  ascertaining ;  but  for  all  practical  purposes,  we  can  arrive  sufficiently 
near  to  the  amount  by  inference  from  the  above  data,  and  from 
what  we  see  with  our  eyes  and  hear  with  our  ears  wherever  we  go. 
Food  from  the  North  for  man  or  for  boast,  or  for  both,  is  for  sale  in 
every  market  in  the  South.  Even  in  the  most  insignificant  little  villages 
in  the  interior  of  the  slave  States,  where  books,  newspapers  and  other 
mediums  of  intelligence  are  unknown,  where  the  poor  whites  and  tho 
negroes  are  alike  bowed  down  in  heathenish  ignorance  and  barbarism, 
and  where  the  news  is  received  but  once  a  week,  and  then  only  in  a 
Northern-built  stage-coach,  drawn  by  horses  in  Northern  harness,  'n 


FREE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  27 

charge  of  a  driver  dressed  cap-a-pie  in  Northern  habiliments,  and  with 
a  Northern  whip  in  his  hand — the  agricultural  products  of  the  North, 
either  crude,  prepared,  pickled  or  preserved,  are  ever  to  be  found. 

Mortifying  as  the  acknowledgment  of  the  fact  is  to  us,  it  is  our  un 
biased  opinion — an  opinion  which  will,  we  believe,  be  indorsed  by  every 
intelligent  person  who  goes  into  a  careful  examination  and  comparison 
of  all  the  facts  in  the  case — that  the  profits  arising  to  the  North  from 
the  sale  of  provender  and  provisions  to  the  South,  are  far  greater  than 
those  arising  to  the  South  from  the  sale  of  cotton,  tobacco  and  bread- 
stuffs  to  the  North.  It  follows,  then,  that  the  agricultural  interests  of 
the  xVorth  being  not  only  equal  but  actually  superior  to  those  of  the 
South,  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  which  the  commerce  and 
manufactures  of  the  former  annually  yield,  is  just  so  much  clear  and 
independent  gain  over  the  latter.  It  follows,  also,  from  a  corresponding 
train  or  system  of  deduction,  and  with  all  the  foregoing  facts  in  view, 
that  the  difference  between  freedom  and  slavery  is  simply  the  difference 
between  sense  and  nonsense,  wisdom  and  folly,  good  and  evil,  right  and 
wrong. 

Any  observant  American,  from  whatever  point  of  the  compass  he 
may  hail,  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  pass  though  the  Southern  mar 
kets,  both  great  and  small,  as  we  have  done,  and  inquire  where  this 
article,  that  and  the  other  came  from,  will  be  utterly  astonished  at  the 
variety  and  quantity  of  Northern  agricultural  productions  kept  for  sale. 
And  this  state  of  things  is  growing  worse  and  worse  every  year.  Ex 
clusively  agricultural  as  the  South  is  in  her  industrial  pursuits,  she  is 
barely  able  to  support  her  sparse  and  degenerate  population.  Her  men 
and  her  domestic  animals,  both  dwarfed  into  shabby  objects  of  com 
miseration  under  the  blighting  effects  of  slavery,  are  constantly  feeding 
on  the  multifarious  products  of  Northern  soil.  And  if  the  whole  truth 
must  be  told,  we  may  here  add,  that  these  products,  like  all  other  arti 
cles  of  merchandise  purchased  at  the  North,  are  generally  bought  on 
credit,  and,  in  a  great  number  of  instances,  by  far  too  many,  never  paid 
for — not,  as  a  general  rule,  because  the  purchasers  are  dishonest  or  un 
willing  to  pay,  but  because  they  are  impoverished  and  depressed  by  the 
retrogressive  and  deadening  operations  of  slavery,  that  most  unprofit 
able  and  pernicious  institution  under  which  they  live. 

To  show  how  well  we  are  sustained  in  our  remarks  on  hay  and  other 
special  products  of  the  soil,  as  well  as  to  give  circulation  to  other  facts 
of  equal  significance,  we  quote  a  single  passage  from  an  address  by  Paul 
0.  Cameron,  before  the  Agricultural  Society  of  Orange  County,  North 
Carolina.  This  production  is,  in  the  main,  so  powerfully  conceived,  so 
correct  and  plausible  in  its  statements  and  conclusions,  and  so  well  cal 
culated,  though,  perhaps,  not  intended,  to  arouse  the  old  North  State  to 
a  sense  of  her  natural  greatness  and  acquired  shame,  that  we  could  wish 


28  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN    THE 

to  see  it  published  in  pamphlet  form,  and  circulated  throughout  tho 
length  and  breadth  of  that  unfortunate  and  degraded  heritage  of  slavery. 
Mr.  Cameron  says  : 

"  I  know  not  when  I  have  been  more  humiliated,  as  a  North  Carolina  farmer, 
than  when,  a  few  weeks  ago,  at  a  railroad  depot  at  the  very  doors  of  our  State 
capital,  I  saw  wagons  drawn  by  Kentucky  mules,  loading  with  Northern  hay,  for 
the  supply  not  only  of  tho  town,  but  to  be  taken  to  the  country.  Such  a  sight  at  the 
capital  of  a  State  whose  population  is  almost  exclusively  devoted  to  agriculture,  is 
a  most  humiliating  exhibition.  Let  us  cease  to  use  everything,  as  far  as  it  is  prac 
ticable,  that  is  not  the  product  of  our  own  soil  and  workshops — not  an  axe,  or  a 
broom,  or  bucket,  from  Connecticut.  By  every  consideration  of  self-preservation, 
we  are  called  to  make  better  efforts  to  expel  the  Northern  grocer  from  the  State 
with  his  butter,  and  the  Ohio  and  Kentucky  horse,  mule  and  hog  driver,  from  our 
county  at  least.  It  is  a  reproach  on  us  as  farmers,  and  no  little  deduction  from 
our  wealth,  that  we  suffer  the  population  of  our  towns  and  villages  to  supply  them 
selves  with  butter  from  another  Orange  County  in  New  York." 

We  have  promised  to  prove  that  the  hay  crop  of  the  free  States  is 
worth  considerably  more  than  all  the  cotton,  tobacco,  rice,  hay  and  hemp 
produced  in  the  fifteen  slave  States.  The  compilers  of  the  last  census, 
as  we  learn  from  Prof.  De  Bow,  the  able  and  courteous  superintendent, 
in  making  up  the  hay-tables,  allowed  two  thousand  two  hundred  and 
forty  pounds  to  the  ton.  The  price  per  ton  at  which  we  should  estimate 
its  value  has  puzzled  us  to  some  extent.  Dealers  in  the  article  at  Balti 
more  think  it  will  average  twenty-five  dollars,  in  their  market.  Four 
or  five  months  ago  they  sold  it  at  thirty  dollars  per  ton.  At  the  very 
time  we  write,  though  there  is  less  activity  in  the  article  than  usual,  we 
learn,  from  an  examination  of  sundry  prices-current  and  commercial 
journals,  that  hay  is  selling  in  Savannah  at  $33  per  ton ;  in  Mobile  and 
New  Orleans  at  $26 ;  in  Charleston  at  $25;  in  Louisville  at  $24;  and 
in  Cincinnati  at  $23.  The  average  of  these  prices  is  twenty-six  dollars 
sixteen  and  two-third  cents  ;  and  we  suppose  it  would  be  fair  to  employ 
the  figures  which  would  indicate  this  amount,  the  net  value  of  a  single 
ton,  in  calculating  the  total  market  value  of  the  entire  crop.  Were  we 
to  do  this — and,  with  the  foregoing  facts  in  view,  we  submit  to  intelli 
gent  men  whether  we  would  not  be  justifiable  in  doing  it — the  hay  crop 
of  the  free  States,  12,690,982  tons,  in  1850,  would  amount  in  valuation 
to  the  enormous  sum  of  $331,081,695 — more  than  four  times  the  value 
of  all  the  cotton  produced  in  the  United  States  during  the  same  period ! 

But  we  shall  not  make  the  calculation  at  what  we  have  found  to  be 
the  average  value  per  ton  throughout  the  country.  What  rate,  then, 
shall  be  agreed  upon  as  a  basis  of  comparison  between  the  value  of  the 
hay  crop  of  the  jSTorth  and  that  of  the  South,  and  as  a  means  of  testing 
tho  truth  of  our  declaration — that  the  former  exceeds  the  aggregate 
value  of  all  the  cotton,  tobacco,  rice,  hay  and  hemp  produced  in  the  fif 
teen  slave  States?  Suppose  we  take  $13  08£ — just  half  the  average 
value — as  the  multiplier  in  this  arithmetical  exercise.  This  we  can  well 
afford  to  do ;  indeed,  we  might  reduce  the  amount  per  ton  tc  much  less 


FREE   AND   THE   SLAVE    STATES.  29 

than  half  the  average  value,  and  still  have  a  large  margin  left  for  tri 
umphant  demonstration.  It  is  not  our  purpose,  however,  to  make  an 
overwhelming  display  of  the  incomparable  greatness  of  the  free  States. 

In  estimating  the  value  of  the  various  agricultural  products  of  the  two 
great  sections  of  the  country,  we  have  been  guided  by  prices  emanating 
from  the  Bureau  of  Agriculture  in  "Washington  ;  and  in  a  catalogue  of 
those  prices  now  before  us,  we  perceive  that  the  average  value  of  hay 
throughout  the  nation  is  supposed  to  be  not  more  than  half  a  cent  per 
pound — $11  20  per  ton — which,  as  we  have  seen  above,  is  considerably 
less  than  half  the  present  market  value; — and  this,  too,  in  the  face  of  the 
fact  that  prices  generally  rule  higher  than  they  do  just  now.  It  will  be 
admitted  on  all  sides,  however,  that  the  prices  fixed  upon  by  the  Bureau 
of  Agriculture,  taken  as  a  whole,  are  as  fair  for  one  section  of  the  country 
as  for  the  other,  and  that  we  cannot  blamelessly  deviate  from  them  in 
one  particular  without  deviating  from  them  in  another.  Eleven  dollars 
and  twenty  cents  ($11  20)  per  ton  shall  therefore  be  the  price ;  and,  not 
withstanding  these  greatly  reduced  figures,  we  now  renew,  with  an 
addendum,  our  declaration  and  promise,  that — We  can  prove,  and  we  shall 
now  proceed  to  prove,  that  the  annual  hay  crop  of  the  free  States  is  worth 
considerably  more  in  dollars  and  cents  than  all  the  cotton,  tobacco,  rice, 
hay,  hemp,  and  cane  sugar  annually  produced  in  the  jflf teen  slave  States. 

HAY   CEOP   OF   THE   FEEE   STATES — 1850. 
12,690,982  tons  @  $11  20 $142,138,998 

SUNDRY   PRODUCTS   OF   THE   SLAVE   STATES— 1850. 

Cotton 2,445,779  bales©  $32  00 $78,264,928 

Tobacco 185,023,906  Ibs.      "          10 18,502,390 

Rice(rough)   215,313,497  Ibs.      "  4 8,612,539 

Hay 1,137,784  tons    "    11  20 12,743,180 

Hemp. 34,673  tons    "  112  00 3,883,376 

Cane  Sugar 237,133,000  Ibs.      «  7 16,599,310 


Total.... $138,605,723 


RECAPITULATION. 


Hay  crop  of  the  free  States $142,138,998 

Sundry  products  of  the  slave  States 138,605,723 

Balance  in  favor  of  the  free  States $3,533,275 

There  is  the  account ;  look  at  it,  and  let  it  stand  in  attestation  of  tho 
exalted  virtues  and  surpassing  powers  of  freedom.  Scan  ib  well,  Mes 
sieurs  lords  of  the  lash,  and  learn  from  it  new  lessons  of  the  utter  ineffi 
ciency,  and  despicable  imbecility  of  slavery.  Examine  it  minutely, 
liberty -loving  patriots  of  the  North,  and  behold  in  it  additional  evidences 
of  the  beauty,  grandeur,  and  superexcellence  of  free  institutions.  Trea 
sure  it  up  in  your  minds,  outraged  friends  and  non -slaveholders  of  the 


30  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN   THE 

South,  and  let  the  recollection  of  it  arouse  you  to  an  inflexible  determi 
nation  to  extirpate  the  monstrous  enemy  that  stalks  abroad  in  your 
land,  and  to  recover  the  inalienable  rights  and  liberties,  which  have  been 
filched  from  you  by  an  unscrupulous  oligarchy. 

In  deference  to  truth,  decency  and  good  sense,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  enemies  of  free  institutions  will  never  more  have  the  effrontery  to 
open  their  mouths  in  extolling  the  agricultural  achievements  of  slave 
labor.  Especially  is  it  desirable,  that,  as  a  simple  act  of  justice  to  a 
grossly  deceived  populace,  they  may  cease  their  stale  and  senseless 
harangues  on  the  importance  of  cotton.  The  value  of  cotton  to  the 
South,  to  the  North,  to  the  nation,  and  to  the  world,  has  been  so  grossly 
exaggerated,  and  so  extensive  have  been  the  evils  which  have  resulted  in 
consequence  of  the  extraordinary  misrepresentations  concerning  it,  that 
we  should  feel  constrained  to  reproach  ourself  for  remissness  of  duty,  if 
we  failed  to  make  an  attempt  to  explode  the  popular  error.  The  figures 
above  show  what  it  is,  and  what  it  is  not.  Kecur  to  them,  and  learn  the 
facts. 

So  hyperbolically  has  the  importance  of  cotton  been  magnified  by  cer 
tain  pro-slavery  politicians  of  the  South,  that  the  person  who  would 
give  credence  to  all  their  fustian  and  bombast,  would  be  under  the 
necessity  of  believing  that  the  very  existence  of  almost  everything,  in 
the  heaven  above,  in  the  earth  beneath,  and  in  the  water  under  the 
earth,  depended  on  it.  The  truth  is,  however,  that  the  cotton  crop  is  of 
bu-t  comparatively  little  value  to  the  South.  New  England  and  Old 
England,  by  their  superior  enterprise  and  sagacity,  turn  it  chiefly  to 
their  own  advantage.  It  is  carried  in  their  ships,  spun  in  their  factories, 
woven  in  their  looms,  insured  in  their  offices,  returned  again  in  their 
own  vessels,  and,  with  double  freight  and  cost  of  manufacturing  added, 
purchased  by  the  South  at  a  high  premium.  Of  all  the  parties  engaged 
or  interested  in  its  transportation  and  manufacture,  the  South  is  the 
only  one  that  does  not  make  a  profit.  Nor  does  she,  as  a  general  thing, 
make  a  decent  profit  by  producing  it. 

We  are  credibly  informed  that  many  of  the  farmers  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  Baltimore,  where  we  now  write,  have  turned  their  attention 
exclusively  to  hay,  and  that  from  one  acre  they  frequently  gather  two 
tons,  for  which  they  receive  fifty  dollars.  Let  us  now  inquire  how 
many  dollars  may  be  expected  from  an  acre  planted  in  cotton.  Mr. 
Cameron,  from  whose  able  address  before  the  Agricultural  Society  of 
Orange  County,  North  Carolina,  we  have  already  gleaned  some  interest- 
jig  particulars,  informs  us,  that  the  cotton  planters  in  Ms  part  of  the 
country,  "  have  contented  themselves  with  a  crop  yielding  only  ten  or 
twelve  dollars  per  acre,"  and  that  "  the  summing  up  of  a  large  surface 
gives  but  a  living  result."  An  intelligent  resident  of  the  Palmetto 
State,  writing  in  De  Bow's  Review,  not  long  since,  advances  the  opinion 


FREE    AND   THE   SLAVE   STATES.  31 

that  the  cotton  planters  of  South  Carolina  are  not  realizing  more  than 
vne  per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  capital  they  have  invested.  While  in 
Virginia,  very  recently,  an  elderly  slaveholder,  whose  religious  walk 
and  conversation  had  recommended  and  promoted  him  to  an  eldership 
in  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  who  supports  himself  and  family  by 
raising  negroes  and  tobacco,  told  us  that,  for  the  last  eight  or  ten  years, 
aside  from  the  increase  of  his  human  chattels,  he  felt  quite  contldent  lie 
h&'d  not  cleared  as  much  even  as  one  per  cent,  per  annum  on  the  amount 
of  his  investment.  The  real  and  personal  property  of  this  aged  Christian 
consists  chiefly  in  a  large  tract  of  land  and  about  thirty  negroes,  most 
of  whom,  according  to  his  own  confession,  are  more  expensive  than 
profitable.  The  proceeds  arising  from  the  sale  of  the  tobacco  they  produce, 
are  all  absorbed  in  the  purchase  of  meat  and  bread  for  home  consump 
tion,  and  when  the  crop  is  stunted  by  drought,  frost,  or  otherwise  cut 
short,  one  of  the  negroes  must  be  sold  to  raise  funds  for  the  support  of 
the  others.  Such  are  the  agricultural  achievements  of  slave  labor  ;  such 
are  the  results  of  "  the  sum  of  all  villainies."  The  diabolical  institution 
subsists  on  its  own  flesh.  At  one  time  children  are  sold  to  procure  food 
for  the  parents,  at  another,  parents  are  sold  to  procure  food  for  the 
children.  "Within  its  pestilential  atmosphere,  nothing  succeeds;  pro 
gress  and  prosperity  are  unknown  ;  inanition  and  slothfulness  ensue ; 
everything  becomes  dull,  dismal  and  unprofitable ;  wretchedness  anc! 
desolation  stand  or  lie  in  bold  relief  throughout  the  land  ;  an  aspect  of 
most  melancholy  inactivity  and  dilapidation  broods  over  every  .city  and 
town;  ignorance  and  prejudice  sit  enthroned  over  the  minds  of  the  peo 
ple;  usurping  despots  wield  the  sceptre  of  power;  everywhere,  and  in 
everything,  between  Delaware  Bay  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  are  tha 
multitudinous  evils  of  slavery  apparent 

The  soil  itself  soon  sickens  and  dies  beneath  the  unnatural  tread  of 
the  slave.  Hear  what  the  Hon.  C.  C.  Clay,  of  Alabama,  has  to  say  upon 
the  subject.  Ilis  testimony  is  eminently  suggestive,  well-timed,  and 
truthful ;  and  we  heartily  commend  it  to  the  careful  consideration  of 
every  spirited  Southron  who  loves  his  country,  and  desires  to  see  it 
rescued  from  the  fatal  grasp  of  "the  mother  of  harlots."  Says  he: 

"I  can  show  you,  with  sorrow,  in  the  older  portions  of  Alabama,  and  in  my 
native  county  of  Madison,  the  sad  memorials  of  the  artless  and  exhausting  cullure 
cf  cotton.  Our  small  planters,  after  taking  the  cream  off  their  lands,  unable  to  res 
tore  them  by  rest,  manures,  or  otherwise,  are  going  further  West  and  South,  in 
search  of  other  virgin  'ands,  which  they  may  and  will  despoil  and  impoverish  ia 
like  manner.  Our  wealthier  planters,  with  greater  means  and  no  more  skill,  are 
buying  out  their  poorer  neighbors,  extending  their  plantations,  and  adding  to  their 
slave  force.  Tiie  wealthy  few,  who  are  able  to  live  on  smaller  profits,  and  to  give 
their  blasted  fields  some  rest,  are  thus  pushing  off  the  many  who  are  merely  inde 
pendent.  Of  tlie  $'20,000,009  annually  realized  from  the  sales  of  the  cotton  crop 
of  Alabama,  nearly  all  not  expended  in  supporting  the  producers,  is  re-invested  iu 
land  and  negroes.  Thus  thn  white  population  has  decreased  and  the  slave  increased 
almost  paripassu  in  several  counties  of  our  State.  In  1825,  Madison  county  cast 
about  3,000  votes;  now,  she  cannot  cast  exceeding  2,300.  in  traversing  tkai 


82  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN   THE 

county,  one  will  discover  numerous  farm-houses,  once  the  abode  of  industrious  and 
intelligent  freemen,  now  occupied  by  slaves,  or  tenantless,  deserted  and  dilapi 
dated  ;  he  will  observe  fields,  once  fertile,  now  unfenced,  abandoned  and  covered 
•with  those  evil  harbingers,  fox-tail  and  broomsedge  ;  he  will  see  the  moss  growing 
on  the  moldering  walls  of  once  thrifty  villages,  and  will  find  '  one  only  master 
grasps  the  whole  domain,'  that  once  furnished  happy  homes  for  a  dozen  white 
families.  Indeed,  a  country  in  its  infancy,  where  fifty  years  ago  scarce  a  forest 
tree  had  been  felled  by  the  axe  of  the  pioneer,  is  already  exhibiting  the  painful 
signs  of  senility  and  decay,  apparent  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas." 

Some  one  has  said  that  "  an  honest  confession  is  good  for  the  soul," 
and  if  the  adage  be  true,  as  we  have  no  doubt  it  is,  we  think  Mr.  0.  C. 
Clay  is  entitled  to  a  quiet  conscience  on  one  score  at  least.  In  the 
extract  quoted  above,  he  gives  us  a  graphic  description  of  the  ruinous 
operations  and  influences  of  Slavery  in  the  Southwest ;  and  we,  as  a 
native  of  Carolina,  and  a  traveller  through  Virginia,  are  ready  to  bear 
testimony  to  the  fitness  of  his  remarks  when  he  referred  to  those  States 
as  examples  of  senility  and  decay.  With  equal  propriety,  however, 
he  might  have  stopped  nearer  home  for  a  subject  of  comparison. 
Either  of  the  States  bordering  upon  Alabama,  or,  indeed,  any  other 
slave  States,  would  have  answered  his  purpose  quite  as  well  as  Virginia 
and  the  Carolinas.  "Wherever  slavery  exists  there  he  may  find  parallels 
to  the  destruction  that  is  sweeping  with  such  deadly  influence  over  his 
own  unfortunate  State. 

As  for  examples  of  vigorous,  industrious  and  thrifty  communities,  they 
can  be  found  anywhere  beyond  the  Upas-shadow  of  slavery — nowhere 
else.  New  York  and  Massachusetts,  which,  by  nature,  are  confessedly  far 
inferior  to  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  have  by  the  more  liberal  and  equit 
able  policy  which  they  have  pursued,  in  substituting  liberty  for  slavery, 
attained  a  degree  of  eminence  and  prosperity  altogether  unknown  in  the 
slave  States. 

Amidst  all  the  hyperbole  and  cajolery  of  slave-driving  politicians  who, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  are  "  the  books,  the  arts,  the  academies,  that 
show,  contain  and  govern  all  the  South,"  we  are  rejoiced  to  see  that 
Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Cameron,  and  a  few  others,  have  had  the  boldness  and 
honesty  to  step  forward  and  proclaim  the  truth.  All  such  frank  admis 
sions  are  to  be  hailed  as  good  omens  for  the  South.  Nothirfg  good  can 
come  from  any  attempt  to  conceal  the  unconcealable  evidences  of 
poverty  and  desolation  everywhere  trailing  in  the  wake  of  slavery.  Let 
the  truth  be  told  on  all  occasions,  c,f  the  North  as  well  as  of  the  South, 
and  the  people  will  soon  begin  to  discover  the  egregiousness  of  their 
errors,  to  draw  just  comparisons,  to  inquire  into  cause  and  effect,  and  -to 
adopt  the  more  utile  measures,  manners  and  customs  of  their  wiser 
contemporaries. 

In  willfully  traducing  and  decrying  everything  North  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line,  and  in  excessively  magnifying  the  importance  of  every 
thing  South  of  it,  the  oligarchy  have,  in  the  eyes  of  all  liberal  and  in 


FKEE   AND   THE   SLAVE   STATES.  33 

telligent  men,  only  made  an  exhibition  of  their  uncommon  folly  and 
dishonesty.  For  a  long  time,  it  is  true,  they  have  succeeded  in  deceiv 
ing  the  people,  in  keeping  them  humbled  in  the  murky  sloughs  of 
poverty  and  ignorance,  and  in  instilling  into  their  untutored  minds  pas 
sions  and  prejudices  expressly  calculated  to  strengthen  and  protect  the 
accursed  institution  of  slavery ;  but,  thanks  to  heaven,  their  inglorious 
reign  is  fast  drawing  to  a  close ;  with  irresistible  brilliancy,  and  in  spite 
of  the  interdict  of  tyrants,  light  from  the  pure  fountain  of  knowledge 
is  now  streaming  over  the  dark  places  of  our  land,  and,  ere  long — mark 
our  words — there  will  ascend  from  Delaware,  and  from  Texas,  and  from 
all  the  intermediate  States,  a  huzza  for  Freedom  and  for  Equal  Eights, 
that  will  utterly  confound  the  friends  of  despotism,  set  at  defiance  the 
authority  of  usurpers,  and  carry  consternation  to  the  heart  of  every 
slavery -propagandist. 

To  undeceive  the  people  of  the  South,  to  bring  them  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  inferior  and  disreputable  position  which  they  occupy  as  a  com 
ponent  part  of  the  Union,  and  to  give  prominence  and  popularity  to 
those  plans  which,  if  adopted,  will  elevate  us  to  an  equality,  socially, 
morally,  intellectually,  industrially,  politically,  and  financially,  with  the 
most  flourishing  and  refined  nation  in  the  world,  and,  if  possible,  to 
place  us  in  the  van  of  even  that,  is  the  object  of  this  work.  Slave 
holders,  either  from  ignorance  or  from  a  willful  disposition  to  propagate 
error,  contend  that  the  South  has  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of,  that  slavery 
has  proved  a  blessing  to  her,  and  that  her  superiority  over  the  North  in 
an  agricultural  point  of  view,  makes  amends  for  all  her  short-comings 
in  other  respects.  On  the  other  hand,  we  contend  that  many  years  of 
continual  blushing  and  severe  penance  would  not  suffice  to  cancel  or 
annul  the  shame  and  disgrace  that  justly  attaches  to  the  South  in  conse 
quence  of  slavery — the  direst  evil  that  e'er  befell  the  land — that  the 
South  bears  nothing  like  even  a  respectable  approximation  to  the  North 
in  navigation,  commerce  or  manufactures,  and  that,  contrary  to  tho 
opinion  entertained  by  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  her  people,  she  is  far 
behind  the  free  States  in  the  only  thing  of  which  she  has  ever 
dared  to  boast — agriculture.  "We  submit  the  question  to  the  arbi 
tration  of  figures,  which,  it  is  said,  do  not  lie.  With  regard  to  the 
bushel-measure  products  of  the  soil,  of  which  we  have  already  taken 
an  inventory,  we  have  seen  that  there  is  a  balance  against  the  South  in 
favor  of  the  North  of  seventeen  million  four  hundred  and  twenty -thref 
thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty-two  lushels,  and  a  difference  in  the  value 
of  the  same,  also  in  favor  of  the  North,  of  forty '-four  million  seven  hun 
dred  and  eighty -two  thousand  si*  hundred  and  thirty -six  dollars.  It  is 
certainly  a  most  novel  kind  of  agricultural  superiority  that  the  South 
claims  on  that  score  I 

Our  attention  shall  now  be  directed  to  the  twelve  principal  pound 

2* 


34:  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 

measure  products  of  the  free  and  of  the  slave  States — hay,  cotton,  "but 
ter  and  cheese,  tobacco,  cane-sugar,  wool,  rice,  hemp,  maple  sugar,  bees 
wax  and  honey,  flax,  and  hops — and  in  taking  an  account  of  them,  we 
shall,  in  order  to  show  the  exact  quantity  produced  in  each  State,  and 
for  the  convenience  of  future  reference,  pursue  the  same  plan  as  that 
adopted  in  the  preceding  tables.  "Whether  slavery  will  appear  to  better 
advantage  on  the  scales  than  it  did  in  the  half-bushel,  remains  to  be 
seen.  It  is  possible  that  the  rickety  monster  may  make  a  better  show 
on  a  new  track;  but  if  it  makes  a  more  ridiculous  display,  we  shall  not 
be  surprised.  A  careful  examination  of  its  precedents,  has  taught  us  the 
folly  of  expecting  anything  good  to  issue  from  it  in  any  manner  what 
ever.  It  has  no  disposition  to  emulate  the  magnanimity  of  its  betters, 
and  as  for  a  laudable  ambition  to  excel,  that  is  a  characteristic  altogether 
foreign  to  its  nature.  Languor  and  inertia  are  the  insalutary  viands 
upon  which  it  delights  to  satiate  its  morbid  appetite  ;  and  "from  bad  to 
worse"  is  the  ill-omened  motto  under  which,  in  all  its  feeble  efforts 
and  achievements,  it  ekes  out  a  most  miserable  and  deleterious  exist 
ence. 


COMPARISONS   BETWEEN    THE 


85 


AGRICULTURAL   PRODUCTS   OF    THE   FREE   STATES  — 1850. 


STATES. 

Hay,  tona. 

Hemp,  tons. 

Hops,  Ibs. 

Flax,  Ibs. 

Jlnple  Sugar, 
Ibs. 

Tobacco,  Iba. 

Ca'ifornSa 

2  038 

1  000 

Connecticut... 
lliir-ois  

516,181 
601,1)52 



554 
3,551 

17,923 
1  GO  Oti3 

50,796 
243  904 

1,267^624 
841  394 

Indiana  

403,230 
89055 



92,796 
8242 

534,469 
62  6  (JO 

2,921,192 

73  407 

1,044,620 
6  041 

Maine    

753,839 
651  307 



40,120 
121  595 

17,031 
1  16° 

93,542 

7()5  5?5 

133  246 

Michigan 

404,984 

10  663 

7  152 

2  439  794 

1  245 

N.  Hampshire.. 
New  Jersey  ..  . 
New  York  
Ohio 

593,854 
435,950 
8,723,797 
1  443  142 

""4 

150 

257,174 
2,133 
2,535,299 
63  731 

7,652 
182,965 
940,577 
446  932 

1,293,663 
2,197 
10,857,434 
4  5S3  209 

'  50 
810 
83,189 
10  454  449 

Pennsylvania  . 

1,842,970 
74  418 

44 

22,033 
277 

530,307 
85 

2,326,525 
23 

912,651 

866  153 

288  023 

20,852 

6  349  357 

215  662 

15  930 

63  393 

610  976 

1  268 

12,690,982 

193 

3,463,176 

8,048,273 

82,161,799 

14,752,087 

e. 


AGRICULTURAL  PRODUCTS   OP   THE  SI.  AYE  STATES—  1850. 


STATES. 

Hay,  tons. 

Hemp,  tons. 

Hops,  Ibs. 

Flax,  Ibs. 

Maple  Sugar, 
Ibs. 

Tobacco,  Ibs. 

Alabama  ... 

82,635 

276 

8,921 

643 

161,990 

Arkansas  

3,976 

""is 

157 

12,291 

9,830 

218,936 

Delaware  

80,159 



843 

17,174 

Florida    ..    .. 

2,510 

14 

50 

998,614 

Georgia  

23,449 

261 

5,337 

""50 

423,024 

Kentucky   .  .  . 
Louisiana  .... 

113,747 
25,752 

'  17  787 

4,309 
125 

2,100,116 

437,405 
255 

65.501,196 
26,373 

Maryland...  . 

157,956 

"'63 

1,870 

'  85.6S6 

47,740 

21,407,497 

Mississippi  .  .  . 

12,504 

7 

473 

665 

49,960 

Missouri  

116,925 

16,028 

4,130 

627,169 

173,910 

17,113.734 

North  Carolina 

145,653 

89 

9,246 

593,796 

27,932 

11,934,786 

Sou:h  Carolina 

20,925 

26 

333 

200 

74,2S5 

Tennessee  .... 

74,091 

"535 

1,032* 

863,131 

158,557 

20,148,9-32 

Texas 

8354 

1 

1,043 

£6,397 

Virginia  

369|09S 

'"139 

11,506 

1,000,450 

1,227,665 

56,803,227 

1,137,784 

84,673 

83,780 

4,763,193 

2,038,637 

185,023,906 

FBEE    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATES. 


6 — Continued. 

AGRICULTURAL  PRODUCTS   OF   THE   SLAVE    STATES  — 


STATES. 

Cotton, 
bales  of  400  Ibs. 

Cane  Sugar, 
hhds.  of  1,000  Ibs. 

Ron?h  Rice, 
Ibs. 

K4,429 

87 

2,812,263 

66,344 

63,179 

Florida         

45,131 

2,750 

1,075,0% 

489,091 

846 

38,950.091 

758 

10 

5,688 

178,737 

226,001 

4,425,349 

Mississippi,  

484,292 

8 

2,719,556 

700 

50,515 

5,405,868 

800  901 

77 

159,930,613 

194  532 

3 

258,854 

f  exas                 

58,072 

7,351 

88,203 

Virginia                             .  .          

3,947 

17,154 

2,445,779 

237,133 

215,313,49T 

7. 


ANIMAL   PRODUCTS   OF   THE   FREE   AND   THE   SLAVE   STATES  —  1850. 


ANIMAL   PRODUCTS   OF  THE  FREE 

ANIMAL  PRODUCTS   OF   THE   SLAVE 

STATES-]  850. 

STATES—  1850. 

STATES. 

Wool, 

Ibs. 

Bnttor  and 
Cheese,  Ibs. 

Beeswax  & 
Honey,  Ibs. 

STATES. 

Wool, 
Ibs. 

Butter  and 
Cheese,  Ibs. 

Beeswa^  & 
Honey,  Ibs. 

California.. 

5,520 

855 

Alabama  .  . 

657,118 

4,040,223 

897,021 

Connecticut 

497,454 

11,861,396 

93,804 

Arkansas  .  . 

182,595 

1,884,327 

192,338 

Illinois.... 

2,150,113 

13,804,768 

869,444 

Delaware.. 

57,768 

1,058,495 

41,248 

Indiana..  . 

2,610,287 

13,506,099 

935,329 

Florida.... 

23,247 

889,513 

18,971 

Iowa  

373,898 

2,381,028 

821,711 

Georgia.  .. 

990,019 

4,687,535 

732,514 

Maine  

1,864,034 

11,678,265 

189,618 

Kentucky.. 

2,297,433 

10,161  477 

1,158,01  £> 

Mass  

585,136 

15,159,512 

59,508 

Louisiana.. 

109,897 

685,026 

96,701 

Michigan        2,043,283 

8,077,390 

359,232 

Maryland.,  j      477,433 

3,810,185 

74,802 

New  Hamp. 
New  Jersey 

1,108,476     10,173,619 
375,396      9,852,966 

117,140 
156,694 

Mississippi. 
Missouri.  .  . 

559,619 
1,627,164 

4,367,425 
8,037,931 

397,460 

1,328,972 

New  York. 

10,071,301  129,507,507 

1,755,830 

N.  Carolina 

970,73*8 

4,242,211  :       512J2S9 

Ohio  

10,196,371     55,268,021 

804,275 

S.  Carolina 

487,233 

2,986,820  |       216,281 

Penn  

4,481,570  ]  42,383,452 

839,509 

Tennessee. 

1,364,378 

8,317,206      1,036,573 

Rhode  Is... 

129,61)2  1     1,312,178 

6,347 

Texas  !      131,917     2,440,199'      "SSO;S25 

Vermont  .  . 

3,400,717    20,853,814 

249,422 

Virginia...  ;  2,860,765  11,525,651  !       880,767 

Wisconsin.. 

253,963 

4,03-1,033 

131,005 

39,617,211 

349,860,783 

6,888,368 

12,797,329  63,634,224 

7,964,764 

FBfcE    AND    T11K    SLAVE    STATES. 


RECAPITULATION — FREE    STATES. 

Hay 28,427,799,680  Ibs.  ©  1-2  c $142,138,998 

Hemp 443,520     ' 

Hops 3,463,176 

Flax 3,048,278 

Maple  Sugar 32,161,799 

Tobacco 14,752,087 

Wool 39,647,211 

Butter  and  Cheese 349,860,783 

Beeswax  and  Honey 6,888,368 

Total 28,878,064,902  Ibs.,  valued  as  above,  $214,422,523 

RECAPITULATION — SLAYE  STATES. 


"   5  ' 

22,176 

15  ' 

'            519  476 

10  ' 

'  304,827 

8 

2,572,943 

10 

1  475  208 

35 

.13,876,523 

15 

52,479,117 

15 

1  033  255 

$12,743,180 

5  "  3,883,376 

15  "  5,067 

10  "  476,619 

8  "   167,094 

10  "  18,502,390 


Hay 2,548,636,160  Ibs.  @  1-2  c. 

Hemp 77,667,520  u 

Hops 33,780  " 

Flax 4,766,198  " 

Maple  Sugar 2,088,687  " 

Tobacco 185,023,906  " 

Wool 12,797,329  "  35 

Butter  and  Cheese 68,634,224  "  15 

Beeswax  and  Honey 7,964,760  "          15 

Cotton 978,311,600  "  8 

Cane  Sugar 237,133,000  "  7 

Rice  (rough) 215,313,497  "  4 

Total 4,338,370,661  Ibs.,  valued  as  above,  at  $155,223,415 

TOTAL   DIFFERENCE — POUND-MEASURE   PEODUOTS. 

Pounds.  Value. 

Free  States 28,878,064,902 $214,422,523 

Slave  States 4,338,370,661 155,223,415 


4r479,065 
.  10,295,133 
. .  1,194,714 
..78,264,928 
.  16,599,310 
...8,612,539 


Balance  in  pounds 24,539,694,241          Difference  in  value,  $59,199,108 

Both  quantity  and  value  again  in  favor  of  the  North !  Behold  also 
the  enormousness  of  the  difference  !  In  this  comparison  with  the  South, 
neither  hundreds,  thousands,  nor  millions,  according  to  the  regular 
method  of  computation,  are  sufficient  to  exhibit  the  excess  of  the  pound- 
measure  products  of  the  North.  Recourse  must  be  had  to  an  almost 
inconceivable  number ;  billions  must  be  called  into  play  ;  and  there  are 
the  figures  telling  us,  with  unmistakable  emphasis  and  distinctness,  that, 
*n  this  department  of  agriculture,  as  in  every  other,  the  North  is  vastly 
the  superior  of  the  South — the  figures  showing  a  total  balance  in  favor 
of  the  former  of  twenty-four  billion  five  hundred  and  thirty-nine  million 
six  hundred  and  ninety -four  thousand  two  hundred  and  forty -one  pounds, 
valued  at  fifty-nine  million  one  hundred  and  ninety-nine  thousand  one 
hundred  and  eight  dollars.  And  yet  the  North,  as  we  are  unblushingly 
told  by  the  fire-eating  politicians  of  the  South,  is  a  poor,  God-forsaken 
country,  bleak,  inhospitable,  and  unproductive ! 

What  next  ?  Is  it  necessary  to  adduce  other  facts  in  order  to  prove 
that  the  rural  wealth  of  the  free  States  is  far  greater  than  that  of  the 
slave  States  ?  Shall  we  make  a  further  demonstration  of  the  fertility  of 
northern  soil,  or  bring  forward  new  evidences  of  the  inefficient  and 


38 


COMPAltlSCXNfc!    BETWEEN    THE 


desolating  system  of  terra-culture  in  the  South  ?  Will  nothing  less  than 
"  confirmations  strong  as  proofs  of  holy  writ,"  suffice  to  convince  the 
South  that  she  is  standing  in  her  own  light,  and  ruining  both  body  and 
Boul  by  the  retention  of  slavery  ?  Whatever  duty  and  expedience  re 
quire  to  be  done,  we  are  willing  to  do.  Additional  proofs  are  at  hand. 
Slaveholders  and  slave-breeders  shall  be  convinced,  confuted,  convicted, 
and  converted.  They  shall,  in  their  hearts  and  consciences,  if  not  with 
their  tongues  and  pens,  bear  testimony  to  the  triumphant  achieve 
ments  of  Free  Labor.  In  the  two  tables  which  immediately  follow  these 
remarks,  they  shall  see  how  much  more  vigorous  and  fruitful  the  soil  is 
when  under  the  prudent  management  of  free  white  husbandmen,  than  it 
is  when  under  the  rude  and  nature-murdering  tillage  of  enslaved 
negroes;  and  in  two  subsequent  tables  they  shall  find  that  the  live 
otock,  slaughtered  animals,  farms,  and  farming  implements  and  machin 
ery,  in  the  free  States,  are  worth  at  least  one  thousand  million  of  dol 
lars  more  than  the  market  value  of  the  same  in  the  slave  States !  In 
the  face,  however,  of  all  these  most  significant  and  incontrovertible 
facts,  the  oligarchy  have  the  unparalleled  audacity  to  tell  us  that  the 
South  is  the  greatest  agricultural  country  in  the  world,  and  that  tho 
North  is  a  dreary  waste,  unfit  for  cultivation,  and  quite  dependent  on  us 
for  the  necessaries  of  life.  How  preposterously  false  all  such  babble  is, 
the  following  tables  will  show  : 


33 


8. 


ACTUAL  CROPS  PER  ACRE  ON  THE  AVERAGE  IN  THE  FREE  AND  IN  THE  SLAVS 

STATES—  1S50. 


ACTUAL  CROPS  PER   ACRE  ON  THE 

ACTUAL  CROPS  PER  ACRE  ON  THE 

AVERAGE  IN  THE  FREE  STATP]S—  1850. 

AVERAGE   IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES-1850. 

4 
& 

1 

n 

"3 

'* 

a 
8    . 

•g  "3 

1 

4 
1 

ja 

i,. 

S  • 
g.9 

STATES. 

tf 

.§ 

J 

c-a 

STATES. 

^ 

§ 

1 

P  j 

^"i 

1 

* 

£ 

."  § 

y 

3 

.3 

& 

0 

.5    3 

^ 

o 

« 

"9 

* 

^ 

o 

M 

c 

* 

Connecticut 

21 

40 

85 

Alabama  .  . 

5 

12 

15 

60 

Illinois  .. 

ii 

29 

i4 

83 

115 

Arkansas... 

18 

22 

Indiana    .. 

12 

20 

18 

33 

100 

Delaware.. 

ii 

20 

20 

Iowa  

14 

86 

82 

100 

Florida.... 

15 

'if  5 

Maine  

10 

27 

120 

Georgia  .  .  . 

5 

18 

'T 

16 

125 

Mas1?  

16 

26 

is 

81 

170 

Kentucky.. 

8 

18 

11 

24 

IS" 

Michigan  .  . 

10 

26 

82 

140 

Louisiana 

16 

New  Hamp. 

11 

SO 

80 

220 

Maryland.. 

18 

21 

18 

23 

"75 

New  Jersey 
New  York.. 

11 
12 

26 
25 

17 

83 

27 

ioo 

Mississippi. 
Missouri... 

9 

11 

12 

26 

18 
84 

105 
110 

Ohio  

12 

21 

25 

86 

.N.  Carolina 

7 

10 

15 

17 

65 

Penn  

15 

20 

'75 

S.  Carolina 

8 

12 

11 

70 

Rhode  Is.  .  . 

30 

100 

Tennessee. 

7 

19 

"l 

21 

120 

Vermont.  .  . 

13 

20 

82 

178 

Texas  

15 

20 

250 

Wisconsin  . 

14 

85 

80 

Virginia  .  .  . 

7 

13 

'5 

18 

75 

~ieT 

~825~ 

107 

~m 

1,503 

IsTf 

~iw~ 

"IF 

275 

TSCO 

FREE   AND   THE    SLAVE   STATES.  39 


RECAPITULATION   OF   ACTUAL   CEOPS    PEE     ACEE   ON"   THE   AVEEAGE — 1850. 


FEEE  STATES. 

Wheat 12  bushels  per  acre. 

Oats 27      "  " 

Rye 18 

Indian  Corn 31 

Irish  Potatoes 125 


((  U 

«  It 


SLAVE      STATES. 


Wheat 9  bushela  per  acre. 

Oats 17      "  " 

Rye 11      "  " 

Indian  Corn 20      "  " 

Irish  Potatoes 113      "  " 


What  an  obvious  contrast  between  the  vigor  of  Liberty  and  the 
mpotence  of  Slavery  ?  What  an  unanswerable  argument  in  favor  of 
.ree  labor  !  Add  up  the  two  columns  of  figures  above,  and  what  is  the 
result?  Two  hundred  and  thirteen  bushels  as  the  products  of  five  acres 
n  the  North,  and  only  one  hundred  and  seventy  bushels  as  the  products 
of  five  acres  in  the  South.  Look  at  each  item  separately,  and  you  will 
find  that  the  average  crop  per  acre  of  every  article  enumerated  is 
greater  in  the  free  States  than  it  is  in  the  slave  States.  Examine  the 
table  at  large,  and  you  will  perceive  that  while  Massachusetts  produces 
sixteen  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre,  Virginia  produces  only  seven ;  that 
Pennsylvania  produces  fifteen  and  Georgia  only  five :  that  while  Iowa 
produces  thirty-six  bushels  of  oats  to  the  acre,  Mississippi  produces  only 
twelve  ;  that  Rhode  Island  produces  thirty,  and  North  Carolina  only 
ten  ;  that  while  Ohio  produces  twenty-five  bushels  of  rye  to  the  acre, 
Kentucky  produces  only  eleven  ;  that  Vermont  produces  twenty,  and 
Tennessee  only  seven  :  that  while  Connecticut  produces  forty  bushels 
of  Indian  corn  to  the  acre,  Texas  produces  only  twenty  ;  that  New 
Jersey  produces  thirty-three,  and  South  Carolina  only  eleven ;  that  while 
New  Hampshire  produces  two  hundred  and  twenty  bushels  of  Irish 
potatoes  to  the  aore,  Maryland  produces  only  seventy-five ;  that  Michigan 
produces  one  hundred  and  forty,  and  Alabama  only  sixty.  Now  for 
other  beauties  of  slavery  in  another  table. 


COMPAKISONS   BETWEEN    THE 


9. 


VALUE  OF  FARMS  AND  DOMESTIC  ANIMALS  IN  THE  FREE  AND  If 

STATES—  1850. 


VALUE  OF  FARMS  AND  DOMESTIC  ANI 
MALS  IN  THE  FREE  STATES—  1850. 

VALUE  OF  FARMS  AND  DOHiiSTIC  ANI 
MALS  IN  THE  SLAVE  ST.,  A'ES—  1850. 

Cash  Value  of 

Cash  Value  of 

Talue  of 

Farms,  Farm 

Value  of 

Farms,  Farm 

States. 

Live  htock. 

Animals 
Slaughtered 

ing  Imp.,  and 
Machinery. 

Live  Stock. 

Animals 
Slaughtered. 

ing  Imp.,  and 
Machinery 

Cal.... 

Conn.  . 

$3,351,058 
7,467,490 

$107,173 
2,202,266 

$3,977,524 
74,618,963 

Ala.... 
Ark.. 

$21,690,112 
6,647,969 

$4,823,485 
1,163,313 

$69,448,887 
16,866,541 

Illinois 
Ind.  .. 
Iowa.. 

24,209,253 
22,478,555 
8,689,275 

4,972,286 
6,567,935 
821,164 

102,533,851 
143,089,617 
17,830,436 

Del.... 
Florida 
Ga... 

1,849,281 
2,880,058 
25,728,416 

373,665 
514,685 
6,339,762 

19,390,310 
6,981,904 
101,647,595 

Maine 
Mass. 
Mich. 
N.  H. 

9,705,726 
9,647,710 
8,003,734 
8,871,901 

1,646,773 
2,500,924 
1,328,327 
1,522.873 

57,146,305 
112,285,931 
54,763,817 
57,560,122 

Ky... 
La.  .. 
Md..  . 
Miss.  . 

29,661,436 
11,152,275 
7,997,634 
19,403,662 

6,462,598|      160,190,299 
1,458,990         87,391,336 
1,954,800         89,641,983 
3,636,582         60,501,561 

N.J.. 
N.  Y.. 

Ohio  . 
Penn. 
R.  I.. 

Vt.  .  . 

10,679,291      2,638,552 
73,570,499    13,573,883 
44,121,741      7,439,243 
41,500,053      8,219,848 
1,532,637:        667,486 
12,643,223      1,861,336 

124,663,014 
576,631,568 
871,509,188 
422,593,640 
17,568,003 
66,106,509 

Mo.  .  . 

N.  C. 

s.  c.. 

Tenn. 
Texas 
Va... 

19,887,580 
17,717,647 
15,060,015 
29,978,016 
10,412,927 
33,656,659 

3,367,106 
5,767,866 
3,502,637 
6,401,765 
1,116,137 
7,502,986 

67,207,063 
71,823,293 
86,568,038 
103,211,422 
18,701,712 
223,423,315 

Viis.  , 

4,897,385        920,178 

80,170,131 

$286,376,541  $56,990,237 

$2,233,058,619 

$258,723,687 

$54,388,377 

$1,183,995,274 

EECAPITULATION — FEEE   STATES. 

Value  of  live  Stock $286,376,541 

Value  of  Animals  slaughtered 56,990,23? 

Value  of  Farms,  Farming -Implements  and  Machinery 2,233,058,619 

Total $2,576,425,397 

EEOAPITULATION — SLAVE   STATES. 

value  of  Live  Stock $253,723,687 

Value  of  Animals  slaughtered 54,388,377 

Value  of  Farms,  Farming-Implements  and  Machinery 1,183,995,274 


Total $1,492,107,338 


DIFFERENCE     IN   VALUE— FAEMS   AND   DOMESTIC   ANIMALS. 

Free  States $2,576,425,397 

Slave  States , 1,492,107,338 


Balance  in  favor  of  the  Free  States $1, 084,318,039 


FKEE   AND   THE    SLAVE    STATES.  41 

By  adding  to  tliis  last  balance  in  favor  cf  the  free  Spates  the  differ 
ences  in  value  which  we  found  in  their  favor  in  our  account  of  tho 
bushel-and-pound-measure  products,  we  shall  have  a  very  correct  idea 
of  the  extent  to  which  the  undivided  agricultural  interests  of  the  free 
States  preponderate  over  those  of  the  slave  States.  Let  us  add  the 
differences  together,  and  see  what  will  be  the  result. 

BALANCES — ALL  IN  FAVOR  OF  THE  NOETH. 

Difference  in  the  value  of  bushel-measure  products $44,782,636 

Difference  in  the  value  of  pound- measure  products 59,199,108 

Difference  in  the  value  of  farms  and  domestic  animals 1,084,318,059 


Balance  in  favor  of  the  Free  States $1,188,299,803 

No  figures  of  rhetoric  can  add  emphasis  or  significance  to  these 
figures  of  arithmetic.  They  demonstrate  conclusively  the  great  moral 
triumph  of  Liberty  over  Slavery.  They  show  unequivocally,  in  spite 
of  all  the  blarney  and  boasting  of  slaveholding  politicians,  that  the 
entire  value  of  all  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  free  States  is  very 
nearly  twice  as  great  as  the  entire  value  of  all  the  agricultural  interests 
of  the  slave  States — the  value  of  those  interests  in  the  former  being 
twenty-five  hundred  million  of  dollars,  that  of  those  in  the  latter  only 
fourteen  hundred  million,  leaving  a  balance  in  favor  of  the  free  Stater 
of  one  billion  one  hundred  and  eighty -eight  million  two  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  thousand  eight  hundred  and  three  dollars  !  That  is  what 
we  call  a  full,  fair  and  complete  vindication  of  Free  Labor.  Would  we 
not  be  correct  in  calling  it  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Black  Orb  ? 

It  will  be  observed  that  we  have  omitted  the  Territories  and  the 
District  of  Columbia  in  all  the  preceding  tables.  We  did  this  purposely. 
Our  object  was  to  draw  an  equitable  comparison  between  the  value  of 
free  and  slave  labor  in  the  thirty-one  sovereign  States,  where  the  two 
systems,  comparatively  unaffected  by  the  wrangling  of  politicians,  and, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  free  from  the  interference  of  the  general  govern 
ment,  have  had  the  fullest  opportunities  to  exert  their  influence,  to 
exhibit  their  virtues,  and  to  commend  themselves  to  the  sober  judgment 
of  enlightened  and  discriminating  minds.  Had  we  counted  the  Territo 
ries  on  the  side  of  the  North,  and  the  District  of  Columbia  on  the  side 
of  the  South,  the  result  would  have  been  still  greater  in  behalf  of  free 
labor.  Though  "  the  sum  of  all  villainies  "  has  but  a  mere  nominal 
existence  in  Delaware  and  Maryland,  we  have  invariably  counted  those 
States  on  the  side  of  the  South  ;  and  the  consequence  is,  that,  in  many 
particulars,  the  hopeless  fortunes  of  slavery  have  been  propped  up  and 
sustained  by  an  imposing  array  of  figures  which  of  right  ought  to  be 
regarded  as  the  property  of  freedom.  But  we  like  to  .be  generous  to  an 
unfortunate  foe,  and  would  utterly  disdain  the  use  of  any  unfair  mean? 
of  attack  or  defence. 


4:2  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN    THE 

Wo  shaL  take  no  undue  advantage  of  slavery.  It  shall  have  a  fair 
trial,  and  be  judged  according  to  its  deserts.  Already  has  it  been 
weighed  in  the  balance,  and  found  wanting ;  it  has  been  measured  in  the 
half-bushel,  and  found  wanting;  it  has  been  apprized  in  the  iield,  and 
found  wanting.  Whatever  redeeming  traits  or  qualities  it  may  possess, 
if  any,  shall  be  brought  to  light  by  subjecting  it  to  other  tests. 

It,  was  our  desire  and  intention  to  furnish  a  correct  table  of  the  gallon- 
measure  products  of  the  several  States  of  the  Union  ;  but  we  have  not 
been  successful  In  our  attempts  to  procure  the  necessary  statistics. 
Enough  is  known,  however,  to  satisfy  us  that  the  value  of  the  milk,  wine, 
ardent  spirits,  inaltjiquors,  fluids,  oils,  and  molasses,  annually  produced 
and  sold -in  the  free  States,  is  at  least  fifty  million  of  dollars  greoior  than 
the  value  of  the  same  articles  annually  produced  and  sold  in  the  slave 
States.  Of  sweet  milk  alone,  it  is  estimated  that  the  monthly  sales  in 
three  Northern  cities,  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Boston,  amount  to  a 
larger  sum  than  the  marketable  value  of  all  the  rosin,  tar,  pitch,  and  tur 
pentine,  annually  produced  in  the  Southern  States. 

Our  efforts  to  obtain  reliable  information  respecting  another  very  im 
portant  branch  of  profitable  industry,  the  lumber  business,  hove  also 
proved  unavailing ;  and  we  are  left  to  conjecture  as  to  the  amount  of 
revenue  annually  derived  from  it  in  the  two  grand  divisions  of  our 
country.  The  person  whose  curiosity  prompts  him  to  take  an  account 
of  the  immense  piles  of  Northern  lumber  now  lying  on  the  wharves  and 
houseless  lots  in  Baltimore,  Eichmond,  and  other  slaveholding  cities,  will 
not,  we  imagine,  form  a  very  flattering  opinion  of  the  products  of 
Southern  forests.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  nearly  all  the  clippers, 
steamers,  and  small  craft,  are  built  at  the  North  ;  that  large  cargo-es  of 
Eastern  lumber  are  exported  to  foreign  countries ;  that  nine-tenths  of  the 
wooden-ware  used  in  the  Southern  States  is  manufactured  in  New  Eng 
land  ;  that,  in  outrageous  disregard  of  the  natural  rights  and  claims  of 
Southern  mechanics,  the  markets  of  the  South  are  forever  filled  with 
Northern  furniture,  vehicles,  axe-helves,  walking-canes,  yard -sticks, 
clothes-pins  and  pen-holders ;  that  the  extraordinary  number  of  factories, 
gleam-engines,  forges  and  machine-shops  in  the  free  States,  require  an 
extraordinary  quantity  of  cord-wood :  that  a  large  majority  of  the  mag 
nificent  edifices  and  other  structures,  both  private  and  public,  in  which 
timber,  in  its  various  forms,  is  extensively  used,  are  to  be  found  in  the  free 
States — we  say,  let  all  these  things  be  remembered,  and  the  truth  will 
at  once  flash  across  the  mind  that  the  forests  of  the  North  are  a  source 
of  far  greater  income  than  those  of  the  South.  The  difference  is  simply 
this :  At  the  North  everything  is  turned  to  advantage.  When  a  tree  is 
cut  down,  the  main  body  is  sold  or  used  for  lumber,  railing,  or  paling,  the 
stirmp  for  matches  or  shoepegs,the  knees  for  ship-building  and  the  branches 
for  fuel.  At  the  South  everything  is  either  neglected  or  mismanaged. 


FREE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  43 

Whole  forests  are  felled  by  the  ruthless  hand  of  slavery,  the  trees  ar&  cut 
into  lo^s,  rolled  into  heaps,  covered  with  the  limbs  and  brush,  and  then 
burned  on  the  identical  soil  that  gave  them  birth.  The  land  itself  next 
falls  a  prey  to  the  fell  destroyer,  and  that  which  was  once  a  beautiful, 
fertile,  and  luxuriant  woodland,  is  soon  despoiled  cf  all  its  treasures,  and 
converted  into  an  eye-offending  desert. 

Were  we  to  go  beneath  the  soil  and  collect  all  the  mineral  and  lapida- 
rious  wealth  of  the  free  States,  we  should  find  it  so  much  greater  than 
the  corresponding  wealth  of  the  slave  States,  that  no  ordinary  combina 
tion  of  figures  would  suffice  to  express  the  difference.  To  say  nothing  of 
the  gold  and  quicksilver  of  California,  the  iron  and  coal  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  copper  of  Michigan,  the  lead  of  Illinois,  or  the  salt  of  New  York, 
the  marble  and  free-stone  quarries  of  New  England  are,  incredible  as  it 
may  seem  to  those  unacquainted  with  the  facts,  far  more  important 
sources  of  revenue  than  all  the  subterranean  deposits  of  the  slave  States. 
From  the  most  reliable  statistics  within  our  reach,  we  are  led  to  the 
nference  that  the  total  value  of  all  the  precious  metals,  rocks,  minerals  and 
nedicinal  waters,  annually  extracted  from  the  bowels  of  the  free  States, 
.«  not  less  than  eighty-five  million  of  dollars  ;  the  whole  value  of  the  same 
substances  annually  brought  up  from  beneath  the  surface  of  the  slave 
States  does  not  exceed  twelve  millions.  In  this  respect  to  what  is  our 
poverty  ascribable  ?  To  the  same  cause  that  has  impoverished  and  dis 
honored  us  in  all  other  respects — the  thriftless  and  degrading  system  of 
human  slavery. 

Nature  has  been  kind  to  us  in  all  things.  The  strata  and  substrata 
of  the  South  are  profusely  enriched  with  gold  and  silver,  and  precious 
stones,  and  from  the  natural  orifices  and  aqueducts  in  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina,  flow  the  purest  healing  waters  in  the  world.  But  of 
what  avail  is  all  this  latent  wealth  ?  Of  what  avail  will  it  ever  be,  so 
iong  as  slavery  is  permitted  to  play  the  dog  in  the  manger  ?  To  these 
queries  there  can  be  but  one  reply.  Slavery  must  be  throttled ;  the 
South,  so  great  and  so  glorious  by  nature,  must  be  reclaimed  from  her 
jifamy  and  degradation ;  our  cities,  fields  and  forests,  must  be  kept 
intact  from  the  unsparing  monster  ;  the  various  and  ample  resources  of 
our  vast  domain,  subterraneous  as  well  as  superficial,  must  be  developed, 
and  made  to  contribute  to  our  pleasures  and  to  the  necessities  of  the  world. 
A  very  significant  chapter,  and  one  particularly  pertinent  to  many  of 
the  preceding  pages,  might  be  written  on  the  Decline  of  Agriculture  in 
the  Slave  States  ;  but  as  the  press  of  other  subjects  admonishes  us  to  be 
concise  upon  this  point,  we  shall  present  only  a  few  of  the  more  striking 
instances.  In  the  first  place,  let  us  compare  the  crops  of  wheat  and  rye 
in  Kentucky,  in  1850.  with  the  corresponding  crops  in  the  same  State 
in  1840 — after  which,  we  will  apply  a  similar  rule  of  comparison  to  two 
or  three  other  slaveholding  States. 


COMPARISONS   BETWEEN  THE 


KENTUCKY. 

Wheat,  bus.  Rye,  *us. 

Crop  of  1840 4,803,152  1,321,373 

»         1850 2,142,822  415,073 

Decrease  2,660,330  bus.        Decrease     906,300  bus. 

TENNESSEE. 

Wheat,  bus.  Tobacco,  ibs. 

Crop  of  1840 4,569,692  29,550,432 

"          1850 1,619,386  20,148,932 

Decrease  2,950,306  bus.       Decrease  9, 401,500  Iba. 

VIRGINIA. 

ET@,  bus.  Tobacco,  Ibs. 

Crop  of  1840 1,482,799  75,347,106 

"          1850 458,930  56,803,227 

Decrease  1,023,869  bus.     Decrease  18,543,879  Ibs 

ALABAMA. 

Wheat,  bus.  Rye,  bus. 

Crop  of  1840 838,052  51,000 

"          1850 294,044  17,261 

Decrease  544,008  bus.  Decrease  33,739  bus 


The  story  of  these  figures  is  too  intelligible  to  require  words  of  expla 
nation  ;  we  shall,  therefore,  drop  this  part  of  our  subject,  and  proceed 
to  compile  a  couple  of  tables  that  will  exhibit  on  a  single  page  the 
wealth,  revenue  and  expenditure,  of  the  several  States  of  the  confederacy. 
Let  it  be  distinctly  understood,  however,  that,  in  the  compilation  of 
these  tables,  three  million  two  hundred  and  four  thousand  three  hun 
dred  and  thirteen  negroes  are  valued  as  personal  property,  and  credited 
to  the  Southern  States  as  if  they  were  so  many  horses  and  asses,  or 
bridles  and  blankets — and  that  no  monetary  valuation  whatever  is  placed 
on  any  creature,  of  any  age,  color,  sex  or  condition,  that  bears  th.0 
upright  form  of  man  in  the  free  States. 


FREE   AND   THE   SLAVE   STATES. 


33  IL, 


1  O. 


WEALTH,  REVENUE,  AND  EXPENDITURE  OF  THE  FREE  AND  OF  THE  SLAVE 

STATES  —  1S50. 


WEALTH,  REVENUE,  AND  EXPENDITURE 

WEALTH,  REVENUE,  AND  EXPENDITURE 

OF   THE  FREE  STATES—  1850. 

OF  THE  SLAVE  STATES-1850. 

Plates. 

Real  and 
Personal 

Revcirae. 

Expendi 

States. 

Real  and 
1'ersonal 

Revenue. 

Expendi 

Pioperty. 

ture, 

Property. 

ture. 

Cal  

$22,161,872 

$366,825 

$925,625 

Ala.  .   . 

$228,204,332 

$658,976 

$513,559 

Conn.. 

155,707,980 

150,189 

137,326 

Ark..   . 

39,841,025 

68,412 

74,076 

Illinois 

156,265,006 

736,030 

192,940 

Del.  .   . 

18,855,863 

Indian 

202,650,264 

1,283,064 

1,061,605 

Florida. 

23,198,734 

60,619 

55,234 

Iowa.. 

23,714,638 

139,681 

131,631 

Georgia 

335,425,714 

1,142,405 

597,882 

Maine 

122,777,571 

744,879 

624,101 

Ky...    . 

301,628,456 

779,293 

674,697 

Mass. 

573,342,286 

598,170 

674,622 

La...   . 

238,998,764 

1,146,568 

1,098,911 

Mich. 
N.  H. 

59,787,255 
103,652,835 

548,326 
141,686 

431,918 
149,890 

Md...   . 

Miss..  . 

219,217,364      1,279^53      1,360,458 
228,951,130         221,200!        223,637 

N.  J.. 

158,151,619 

139,166 

180,614 

Mo...    . 

137,247,707 

326,579 

207,656 

N.Y. 

1,080,309,216 

2,698,810 

2,520,932 

N.  C.    . 

226,800,472 

219,000         228,173 

Ohio. 

504,726,120 

8,016,403 

2,736,060 

S.C..    . 

288,257,694 

532,152 

463,021 

Penn. 

729,144,998 

7,716,552 

6,876,480 

Tenn.  .  . 

207,454,704 

502,126         623^25 

R  I.. 

80,508,794 

124,944 

115,835 

Texas.. 

55,862,340 

140,688 

156,622 

Vt.  .. 

92,205,049 

185,880 

183,058 

Va  

391,646,438      1,265J44;     1,272,382 

Wis.  .  . 

42,056,595 

135,155 

136,096 

$4,102,172)108:$18,725,211 

$17,076,733 

$2,936,090,737 

$8,343,715    $7,549,983 

Entire  Wealth,  of  the  Free  States, $4,102,172,103 

Entire  Wealth  of  the  Slave  States,  including  Slaves,    2,936.090,73, 

Balance  in  favor  of  the  Free  States, $1,106,081,371 

What  a  towering  monument  to  the  beauty  and  glory  of  Free  Labor ! 
What  irrefragable  evidence  of  the  unequalled  efficacy  and  grandeur  of 
free  institutions!  These  figures  are,  indeed,  too  full  of  meaning  to  bo 
passed  by  without  comment.  The  two  tables  from  which  they  are  bor 
rowed  are  at  least  a  volume  within  themselves ;  and,  after  all  the  pains 
we  have  taken  to  compile  them,  we  shall,  perhaps,  feel  somewhat  dis 
appointed  if  the  reader  fails  to  avail  himself  of  the  important  information 
they  impart. 

Human  life,  in  all  ages,  has  been  m.ide  up  of  a  series  of  adventures  and 
experiments,  and  even  at  this  stage  of  the  world's  existence,  we  are, 
perhaps,  almost  as  destitute  of  a  perfect  rule  of  action,  secular  or  reli 
gious,  as  were  the  erratic  contemporaries  of  Noah.  It  is  true,  however, 
that  we  have  made  some  progress  in  the  right  direction ;  and  as  it  seems 
to  be  the  tendency  of  the  woi-d  to  correct  itself,  we  may  suppose  that 
future  generations  will  be  enabled,  by  intuition,  to  discriminate  between 
the  true  and  the  false,  the  good  and  the  bad,  and  that  with  the  develop 
ment  of  this  faculty  of  the  mind,  error  and  discord  will  begin  to  wane. 


46  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 

and  finally  cease  to  exist.  Of  all  the  experiments  that  have  been  tried 
by  the  people  in  America,  slavery  has  proved  the  most  fatal ;  and  the 
sooner  it  is  abolished  the  better  it  will  be  for  us,  for  posterity,  and  for 
the  world.  One  of  the  evils  resulting  from  it,  and  that  not  the  least,  is 
apparent  in  the  figures  above.  Indeed,  the  unprofitableness  of  slavery 
is  a  monstrous  evil,  when  considered  in  all  its  bearings ;  it  makes  us 
poor ;  poverty  makes  us  ignorant ;  ignorance  makes  us  wretched  ; 
wretchedness  makes  us  wicked,  and  wickedness  leads  to — the  devil ! 

"Ignorance'is  the  curse  of  God, 
Knowledge  the  wing  wherewith  we  fly  to  heaven." 

Facts  truly  astounding  are  disclosed  in  the  two  last  tables,  and  wt 
could  heartily  wish  that  every  intelligent  American  would  commit  them 
to  memory.  The  total  value  of  all  the  real  and  personal  property  of  the* 
free  States,  with  an  area  of  only  612,597  square  miles,  is  one  billion  one 
hundred  and  sixty-six  million  eighty-one  thousand  three  hundred  and 
seventy-one  dollars  greater  than  the  total  value  of  all  the  real  and  per 
sonal  property,  including  the  price  of  3,204,313  negroes,  of  the  slave 
States,  which  have  an  area  of  851,508  square  miles  !  But  extraordinary 
as  this  difference  is  in  favor  of  the  North,  it  is  much  less  than  the  true 
amount.  On  the  authority  of  Southrons  themselves,  it  is  demonstrable 
•.  beyond  the  possibility  of  refutation  that  the  intrinsic  value  of  all  the 
property  in  the  free  States  is  more  than  three  times  greater  than  tht, 
intrinsic  value  of  all  the  property  in  the  slave  /States. 

James  Madison,  a  Southern  man,  fourth  President  of  the  United 
States,  a  most  correct  thinker,  and  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen  the 
country  has  produced,  "  thought  it  wrong  to  admit  the  idea  that  there 
could  be  property  in  men,"  and  we  indorse,  to  the  fullest  extent,  this 
opinion  of  the  profound  editor  of  the  Federalist.  We  shall  not  recognize 
property  in  men ;  the  slaves  of  the  South  are  not  worth  a  groat  in  any 
civilized  community ;  no  man  of  genuine  decency  and  refinement  would 
hold  them  as  property  on  any  terms;  in  the  eyes  of  all  enlightened 
nations  and  individuals,  they  are  men,  not  merchandise.  Southern  pro- 
slavery  politicians,  some  of  whom  have  not  hesitated  to  buy  and  sell 
their  own  sons  and  daughters,  boast  that  the  slaves  of  the  South  are 
worth  sixteen  hundred  million  of  dollars,  and  we  have  seen  the  amount 
estimated  as  high  as  two  thousand  million.  Mr.  De  Bow,  the  Southern 
superintendent  of  the  seventh  census,  informs  us  that  the  value  of  all  the 
property  in  the  slave  States,  real  and  personal,  including  slaves,  was,  in 
1850,  only  $2,936,090,737;  while,  according  to  the  same  authority,  the 
value  of  all  the  real  and  personal  property  in  the  free  States,  genuine 
property,  property  that  is  everywhere  recognized  as  property,  was,  at 
the  same  time,  $4,102,172,108.  Now  all  we  have  to  do  in  order  to 
ascertain  the  real  value  of  all  the  property  of  the  South ,  independent  of 


FREE  AND   THE   SLAVE   STATES.  47 

negroes,  wLose  value,  if  valuable  at  all,  is  of  a  local  and  precarious 
character,  is  to  subtract  from  the  sum  total  of  Mr.  De  Bow's  return  of 
the  entire  wealth  of  the  slave  States  the  estimated  value  of  the  slaves 
themselves;  and  then,  by  deducting  the  difference  from  the  intrinsic  value 
of  all  the  property  in  the  free  States,  we  shall  have  the  exact  amount  of 
the  overplus  of  wealth  in  the  glorious  land  of  free  soil,  free  labor,  free 
speech,  free  presses,  and  free  schools.  And  now  to  the  task. 

Entire  "Wealth  of  the  Slave  States,  including  Slaves, $2,930,090,737 

Estimated  Value  of  the  Slaves, 1,600,000,000 

True  Wealth  of  the  Slave  States, : $1,336,090,737 

True  Wealth  of  the  Free  States, $4,102,172,108 

True  Wealth  of  the  Slave  States, 1,336,090,737 

Balance  in  favor  of  the  Free  States, $2,766,081,371 

There,  friends  of  the  South  and  of  the  North,  you  have  the  conclusion 
of  the  whole  matter.  Liberty  and  slavery  are  before  you  ;  choose  which 
jou  will  have ;  as  for  us,  in  the  memorable  language  of  the  immortal 
Henry,  we  say,  "  give  us  liberty,  or  give  us  death  !"  Jn  the  great  strug 
gle  for  wealth  that  has  been  going  on  between  the  two  rival  systems  of 
free  and  slave  labor,  the  balance  above  exhibits  the  net  profits  of  the 
former.  The  struggle  on  the  one  side  has  been  calm,  laudable,  and  emi 
nently  successful ;  on  the  other,  it  has  been  attended  by  tumult,  unutter 
able  cruelties  and  disgraceful  failure.  We  have  given  the  slave  oligarchy 
every  conceivable  opportunity  to  vindicate  their  domestic  policy,  but  for 
them  to  do  it  is  a  moral  impossibility. 

Less  than  three-quarters  of  a  century  ago — say  in  1789,  for  that  was 
about  the  average  time  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  Northern 
States — the  South,  with  advantages  in  soil,  climate,  rivers,  harbors, 
minerals,  forests,  and,  indeed,  almost  every  other  natural  resource,  be 
gan  an  even  race  with  the  North  in  all  the  important  pursuits  of  Ife ; 
and  now,  in  the  brief  space  of  scarce  three  score  years  and  ten,  we  find 
her  completely  distanced,  enervated,  dejected  and  dishonored.  Slave 
owners  and  slave-drivers  are  the  sole  authors  of  her  disgrace ;  as  they 
have  sown,  so  let  them  reap. 

As  we  have  seen  above,  a  careful  and  correct  inventory  of  all  the  real 
and  personal  property  in  the  two  grand  divisions  of  the  country,  discloses 
the  abounding  fact,  that  in  1850,  the  free  States  were  worth  precisely 
two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  sixty-six  million  eighty-one  thousand 
three  hundred  and  seventy-one  dollars  more  than  all  the  slave  States ! 
Twenty-seven  hundred  million  of  dollars!  Think  of  it!  What  a  vast 
and  desirable  sum,  and  how  much  better  off  the  South  would  be  with 
it  than  without  it !  Such  is  the  enormous  amount  out  of  which  slavery 
has  defrauded  us  during  the  space  of  sixty-one  years — from  1789  to  185(J 


48  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 

being  an  average  of  about  forty -five  million  three  hundred  aiid  fifty 

thousand  dollars  per  annum.  During  the  last  twenty-five  or  thirty  years, 
however,  our  annual  losses  have  been  far  greater  than  they  were  former 
ly.  There  has  been  a  gradual  increase  every  year,  and  now  the  ratio  of 
increase  is  almost  incredible.  No  patriotic  Southerner  can  become  con 
versant  with  the  facts  without  experiencing  a  feeling  of  alarm  and  indig 
nation.  Until  the  North  abolished  slavery,  she  had  no  advantage  of  us 
whatever ;  the  South  was  more  than  her  equal  in  every  respect.  But 
no  sooner  had  she  got  rid  of  that  hampering  and  pernicious  institution 
than  she  began  to  absorb  our  wealth,  and  now  it  is  confidently  belies  ed 
that  the  merchants  and  slaveholding  pleasure-seekers  of  the  South  an 
nually  pour  one  hundred  and  twenty  million  of  dollars  into  her  coffers ! 
Taking  into  account,  then,  the  probable  amount  of  money  that  has  been 
drawn  from  the  South  and  invested  in  the  North  within  the  last  eight 
years,  and  adding  it  to  the  grand  balance  above — the  net  profits  of  the 
North  up  to  1850 — it  may  be  safely  assumed  that,  in  the  present  year  of 
grace,  1859,  the  free  States  are  worth  at  least  thirty-five  hundred  million 
of  dollars  more  than  the  slave  States  !  Let  him  who  dares,  gainsay  these 
remarks  and  calculations;  no  truthful  tongue  will  deny  them;  no  hon 
orable  pen  can  controvert  them. 

One  more  word  now  as  to  the  valuation  of  negroes.  Were  our  nature 
so  degraded,  or  our  conscience  so  elastic  as  to  permit  us  to  set  a  price 
upon  men,  as  we  would  set  a  price  upon  cattle  and  corn,  we  should  be 
content  to  abide  by  the  appraisement  of  the  slaves  at  the  South,  aud 
would  then  enter  into  a  calculation  to  ascertain  the  value  of  foreigners 
to  the  North.  Not  long  since,  it  was  declared  in  the  South  that  "one 
free  laborer  is  equal  to  five  slaves,"  and  as  there  are  two  million  five 
hundred  thousand  Europeans  in  the  free  States,  all  of  whom  are  free  la 
borers,  we  might  bring  Southern  authority  to  back  us  in  estimating  their 
value  at  sixty -two  hundred  million  of  dollars — a  handsome  sum  where 
withal  to  offset  the  account  of  sixteen  hundred  million  of  dollars, 
brought  forward  as  to  the  value  of  Southern  slaves !  It  is  obvious, 
therefore,  that  if  we  were  disposed  to  follow  the  barbarian  example  of 
the  traffickers  in  human  flesh,  we  could  prove  the  North  vastly  richer 
than  the  South  in  bone  and  sinew — to  say  nothing  of  mind  and  morals, 
which  fchall  receive  our  attention  hereafter.  The  North  has  just  as  much 
right  to  appraise  the  Irish  immigrant,  as  the  South  has  to  set  a  price  on 
the  African  slave.  But  as  it  would  be  wrong  to  do  either,  we  shall  do 
neither.  It  is  not  our  business  to  think  of  man  as  a  merchantable  com 
modity  ;  and  we  will  not,  even  by  implication,  admit  "  the  wild  and 
guilty  fantasy,"  that  the  condition  of  chattelhood  may  rightfully  attach 
to  sentient  and  immortal  beings. 

For  the  purpose  of  showing  what  Virginia,  once  the  richest,  most 
populous,  and  most  powerful  of  the  States,  has  become  under  the  blight 


FREE   AND   THE    SLAVE   STATES.  49 

of  slavery  we  shall  now  introduce  an  extract  from  one  of  the  speeches 
delivered  by  Governor  Wise,  during  a  late  gubernatorial  campaign  in  that 
degraded  commonwealth.  Addressing  a  Virginia  audience,  in  language 
as  graphic  as  it  is  truthful,  he  says  : 

"  Commerce  has  long  ago  spread  her  sails,  and  sailed  away  from  you.  You 
have  not,  as  yet,  dug  more  than  coal  enough  to  warm  yourselves  at  your  own 
hearths ;  you  have  set  no  tilt-hammer  of  Vulcan  to  strike  blows  worthy  of  gods  in 
your  own  iron-foundries ;  you  have  not  yet  spun  more  than  coarse  cotton  enough, 
in  the  way  of  manufacture,  to  clothe  your  own  slaves.  You  have  no  commerce, 
no  mining,  no  manufactures.  You  have  relied  alone  on  the  single  power  of  agri 
culture,  and  such  agriculture !  Your  sedge-patches  outshine  the  sun.  Your  inat 
tention  to  your  only  source  of  wealth,  has  seared  the  very  bosom  of  mother  earth. 
Instead  of  having  to  feed  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,  you  have  had  to  chase  the 
stump-tailed  steer  through  the  sedge-patches  to  procure  a  tough  beef-steak.  The 
present  condition  of  things  has  existed  too  long  in  Virginia.  The  landlord  has 
skinned  the  tenant,  and  the  tenant  has  skinned  the  land,  until  all  have  grown  poor 
together." 

With  tears  in  its  eyes,  and  truth  on  its  lips,  for  the  first  time  after  an 
interval  of  twenty  years,  the  Richmond  Enquirer  helps  to  paint  the 
melancholy  picture.  In  1852,  that  journal  thus  bewailed  the  condition 
of  Virginia : 

"  We  have  cause  to  feel  deeply  for  our  situation.  Philadelphia  herself  contains 
a  population  far  greater  than  the  whole  free  population  of  Eastern  Virginia.  The 
little  State  of  Massachusetts  has  an  aggregate  wealth  exceeding  that  of  Virginia  by 
more  than  $126,000,000." 

Just  a  score  of  years  before  these  words  were  penned,  the  same  paper, 
then  edited  by  the  elder  Ritchie,  made  a  most  earnest  appeal  to  the  in 
telligence  and  patriotism  of  Virginia,  to  adopt  an  effectual  measure  for 
the  speedy  overthrow  of  the  pernicious  system  of  human  bondage. 
Here  is  an  extract  from  an  article  which  appeared  in  its  editorial  column 
under  date  of  January  7th,  1832  : 

"  Something  must  be  done,  and  it  is  the  part  of  no  honest  man  to  deny  it — of  no 
free  press  to  affect  to  conceal  it.  When  this  dark  population  is  growing  upon 
us  ;  when  every  new  census  is  but  gathering  its  appalling  numbers  upon  us;  when, 
within  a  period  equal  to  that  in  which  this  Federal  Constitution  has  been  in  exist 
ence,  these  numbers  will  increase  to  more  than  two  millions  within  Virginia;  when 
our  sister  States  are  closing  their  doors  upon  our  blacks  for  sale,  and  when  our 
whites  are  moving  westwardly  in  greater  numbers  than  we  like  to  hear  of,  when 
this,  the  fairest  land  on  all  this  continent,  for  soil,  and  climate,  and  situation,  com 
bined,  might  become  a  sort  of  garden  spot,  if  it  were  worked  by  the  hands  of  white 
men  alone,  can  we,  ought  we,  to  sit  quietly  down,  fold  our  arms,  and  say  to  each 
other,  'Well,  well;  this  thing  will  not  come  to  the  worst  in  our  days;  we  will 
leave  it  to  our  children,  and  our  grandchildren,  and  great-grandchildren,  to  take 
eare  of  themselves,  and  to  brave  the  storm !'  Is  this  to  act  like  wise  men  ?  Means 
eure  but  gradual,  systematic  but  discreet,  ought  to  be  adopted,  for  reducing  the 
mass  of  evil  which  is  pressing  upon  the  South,  and  will  still  more  press  upon  her, 
the  longer  it  is  put  oft'.  We  say  now,  in  the  utmost  sincerity  of  our  hearts,  that 
our  wisest  men  cannot  give  too  much  of  their  attention  to  this  subject,  nor  can 
they  give  it  too  soon." 

Better  abolition  doctrine  than  this  is  seldom  heard.  Why  did  not  the 
Enquirer  continue  to  preach  it?  What  potent  influence  hushed  its 
clarion  voice,  just  as  it  began  to  be  lifted  in  behalf  of  a  liberal  policy 

3 


50  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 

and  an  enlightened  humanity  ?  Had  Mr.  Ritchie  continued  to*  press  the 
truth  home  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  as  he  should  have  done,  Virginia, 
instead  of  being  worth  only  $392,000,000  in  1850 — negroes  and  all — 
would  have  been  worth  at  least  $800,000,000  in  genuine  property;  and 
if  the  State  had  emancipated  her  slaves  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  the  last  census  would  no  doubt  have  reported  hen 
wealth,  and  correctly,  at  a  sum  exceeding  a  thousand  millions  of 
dollars. 

Listen  now  to  the  statement  of  a  momentous  fact.  The  value  of  all 
the  property,  real  and  personal,  including  slaves,  in  seven  slave  States, 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Florida  and 
Texas,  is  less  than  the  real  and  personal  estate,  which  is  unquestionable 
property,  in  the  single  State  of  New  York.  Nay,  worse ;  if  eight  entire 
slave  States,  Arkansas,  Delaware,  Florida,  Maryland,  Missouri,  Missis 
sippi,  Tennessee  and  Texas,  and  the  District  of  Columbia — with  all  their 
hordes  of  human  merchandise — were  put  up  at  auction,  New  York 
could  buy  them  all,  and  then  have  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  mil 
lions  of  dollars  left  in  her  pocket !  Such  is  the  amazing  contrast  between 
freedom  and  slavery,  even  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view.  When  we 
come  to  compare  the  North  with  the  South  in  regard  to  literature, 
general  intelligence,  inventive  genius,  moral  and  religious  enterprises, 
the  discoveries  in  medicine,  and  the  progress  in  the  arts  and  sciences, 
we  shall,  in  every  instance,  find  the  contrast  equally  great  on  the  sido 
of  Liberty. 

It  gives  us  no  pleasure  to  say  hard  things  of  the  Old  Dominion,  the 
mother  of  Washington,  Jelferson,  Henry,  and  other  illustrious  patriots-, 
who,  as  we  shall  prove  hereafter,  were  genuine  abolitionists ;  but  the 
policy  which  she  has  pursued  has  been  so  utterly  inexcusable,  so  unjust 
to  the  non-slaveholding  whites,  so  cruel  to  the  negroes,  and  so  disre- 
gardful  of  the  rights  of  humanity  at  large,  that  it  becomes  the  duty  of 
every  one  who  makes  allusion  to  her  history,  to  expose  her  follies,  her 
crimes,  and  her  poverty,  and  to  publish  every  fact,  of  whatever  natuie. 
that  would  be  instrumental  in  determining  others  to  eschew  her  bad 
example.  She  has  willfully  departed  from  the  faith  of  the  founders  of 
this  Republic.  She  has  not  only  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  counsel  of 
wise  men  from  other  States  in  the  Union,  but  she  has,  in  like  manner, 
ignored  the  teachings  of  the  great  warriors  and  statesmen  who  have 
sprung  from  her  own  soil.  In  a  subsequent  chapter,  we  expect  to  show 
that  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  distinguished  Virginians,  whose  bodies  havo 
been  consigned  to  the  grave,  but  whose  names  have  been  given  to  his 
tory,  and  whose  memoirs  have  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  their  countrymen, 
were  the  friends  and  advocates  of  universal  freedom — that  they  were 
inflexibly  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  Territories, 
devised  measures  for  its  restriction,  and,  with  hopeful  anxiety,  looked 


FREE  AND   THE   SLAVE   STATES.  53 

forward  to  the  time  when  it  should  be  eradicated  from  the  States 
themselves.  With  them,  the  rescue  of  our  country  from  British  domi 
nation,  and  the  establishment  of  the  General  Government  upon  a  firm 
basis,  were  considerations  of  paramount  importance ;  they  supposed, 
and  no  doubt  earnestly  desired,  that  the  States,  in  their  sovereign  capa 
cities,  would  soon  abolish  a  system  of  wrong  and  despotism  which  was 
so  palpably  in  conflict  with  the  principles  enunciated  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  Indeed,  it  would  seem  that,  among  the  framers  of 
that  immortal  instrument  and  its  equally  immortal  sequel,  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  there  was  a  tacit  understanding  to  this  effect ; 
and  the  Northern  States,  true  to  their  implied  faith,  abolished  it  within 
a  short  period  after  our  national  independence  had  been  secured.  Not 
so  with  the  South.  She  has  pertinaciously  refused  to  perform  her  duty. 
She  has  apostatized  from  the  faith  of  her  greatest  men,  and  even  at  this 
very  moment  repudiates  the  sacred  principle  that  "  all  men  are  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights,"  among  which  "  are 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that 
the  free  States  are  the  only  members  of  this  confederacy  that  have 
established  republican  forms  of  government  based  upon  the  theories  of 
Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Henry,  and  other  eminent  statesmen 
of  Virginia. 

The  great  revolutionary  movement  which  was  set  on  foot  in  Charlotte, 
Mecklenburg  county,  North  Carolina,  on  the  20th  day  of  May,  1775,  has 
not  yet  been  terminated,  nor  will  it  be,  until  every  slave  in  the  United 
States  is  freed  from  the  tyranny  of  his  master.  Every  victim  of  the 
vile  institution,  whether  white  or  black,  must  be  reinvested  with  tho 
sacred  rights  and  privileges  of  which  he  has  been  deprived  by  an  inhu 
man  oligarchy.  What  our  noble  sires  of  the  revolution  left  unfinished 
it  is  our  duty  to  complete.  They  did  all  that  true  valor  and  patriotism 
could  accomplish.  Not  one  iota  did  they  swerve  from  their  plighted 
faith ;  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  which  they  evinced  will  command  the 
applause  of  every  succeeding  age.  Not  in  vindication  of  their  own  per 
sonal  rights  merely,  but  of  the  rights  of  humanity ;  not  for  their  own 
generation  and  age  simply,  but  for  all  ages  to  the  end  of  time,  they  gave 
their  toil,  their  treasure  and  their  blood,  nor  deemed  them  all  too  great 
a  price  to  pay  for  the  establishment  of  so  comprehensive  and  beneficent  a 
principle.  Let  their  posterity  emulate  their  courage,  their  disinterested 
ness,  and  their  zeal,  and  especially  remember  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
existing  generation  so  to  provide  for  its  individual  interests,  as  to  confer 
superior  advantages  on  that  which  is  to  follow.  To  this  principle  the 
North  has  adhered  with  the  strictest  fidelity.  How  has  it  been  with  the 
South  ?  Has  she  imitated  the  praiseworthy  example  of  our  illustrious 
ancestors  ?  No !  She  has  treated  it  with  the  utmost  contempt ;  she 
has  been  extremely  selfish — so  selfish,  indeed,  that  she  has  robbed  pos 


52  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 

terity  of  its  natural,  inalienable  rights.  From  the  period  of  the  forma 
tion  of  the  government  down  to  the  present  moment,  her  policy  has 
been  downright  suicidal,  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  wholly  indefensi 
ble.  She  has  hugged  a  viper  to  her  breast ;  her  whole  system  has  been 
paralyzed,  her  conscience  is  seared,  and,  still  holding  in  her  embrace  the 
cause  of  her  shame  and  suffering,  she  is  becoming  callous  to  every 
principle  of  justice  and  magnanimity.  Except  among  the  non-slave 
holders,  who,  beside  being  kept  in  the  grossest  ignorance,  are  under  the 
restraint  of  all  manner  of  iniquitous  laws,  patriotism  has  almost  ceased 
to  exist  within  her  borders.  And  here  we  desire  to  be  distinctly  inder- 
stood,  for  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  this  matter  again.  We 
repeat,  therefore,  the  substance  of  our  averment,  that,  at  this  day,  there 
is  scarcely  a  grain  of  pure  patriotism  in  the  South,  except  among  the 
non-slaveholders.  Subsequent  pages  shall  testify  to  the  truth  of  this 
assertion.  Here  and  there,  it  is  true,  a  slaveholder,  disgusted  with  the 
institution,  becomes  ashamed  of  himself,  emancipates  his  negroes,  and 
enters  upon  the  walks  of  honorable  life  ;  but  these  cases  are  exceedingly 
rare,  and  do  not,  in  any  manner,  disprove  the  general  correctness  of  our 
remark.  All  persons  who  do  voluntarily  manumit  their  slaves,  as 
mentioned  above,  are  undeniably  actuated  by  principles  of  pure  patriot 
ism,  justice  and  humanity ;  and  so  believing,  we  delight  to  do  them 
honor. 

Once  more  to  the  Old  Dominion.  At  her  door  we  lay  the  bulk  of 
the  evils  of  slavery.  The  first  African  sold  in  America  was  sold  on 
James  Eiver,  in  that  State,  on  the  20th  of  August,  1620  ;  and  although  the 
institution  was  fastened  upon  her  and  the  other  colonies  by  the  mother 
country,  she  was  the  first  to  perceive  its  blighting  and  degrading  influ 
ences,  her  wise  men  were  the  first  to  denounce  it,  and,  after  the  British 
power  was  overthrown  at  Yorktown,  she  should  have  been  the  first  to 
abolish  it.  Fifty-seven  years  ago  she  was  the  Empire  State ;  now,  with 
half  a  dozen  other  slaveholding  States  thrown  into  the  scale  with  hoi, 
she  is  far  inferior  to  New  York,  which,  at  the  time  Oornwallis  surren 
dered  his  sword  to  Washington,  was  less  than  half  her  equal.  Had  she 
obeyed  the  counsels  of  the  good,  the  great  and  the  wise  men  of  our 
nation — especially  of  her  own  incomparable  sons,  the  extensible  element 
of  slavery  would  have  been  promptly  arrested,  and  the  virgin  soil  of 
nine  Southern  States,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Ala 
bama,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Florida,  and  Texas,  would  have  been  saved 
from  its  horrid  pollutions.  Confined  to  the  original  States  in  which  it 
existed,  the  system  would  soon  have  been  disposed  of  by  legislative 
enactments,  and  long  before  the  present  day,  by  a  gradual  process  that 
could  have  shocked  no  interest  and  alarmed  no  prejudice,  we  should 
have  rid  ourselves  not  only  of  African  slavery,  which  is  an  abomination 
and  a  curse,  but  also  of  the  negroes  themselves,  who,  in  our  judgment. 


FREE  ANP  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  53 

whether  viewed  in  relation  to  their  actual  characteristics  and  condition, 
or  through  the  strong  antipathies  of  the  whites,  are,  to  say  the  least,  an 
undesirable  population. 

This,  then,  is  the  ground  of  our  expostulation  with  Virginia :  that,  in 
stubborn  disregard  of  the  advice  and  friendly  warnings  of  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  Henry,  and  a  host  of  other  distinguished  patriots 
who  sprang  from  her  soil — patriots  whose  voices  shall  be  heard  before 
we  finish  our  task — and  in  utter  violation  of  every  principle  of  justice 
and  humanity,  she  still  persists  in  fostering  an  institution  or  system  which 
is  so  manifestly  detrimental  to  her  vital  interests.  Every  Virginian,  whe 
ther  living  or  dead,  whose  name  is  an  honor  to  his  country,  has  placed  on 
record  his  abhorrence  of  slavery,  and  in  doing  so,  has  borne  testimony 
to  the  blight  and  degradation  that  everywhere  follow  in  its  course.  One 
of  the  best  abolition  speeches  we  have  ever  read  was  delivered  in  the 
Virginia  House  of  Delegates,  January  20th,  1832,  by  Charles  James 
Faulkner,  who  still  lives,  and  who  has,  we  understand,  generously  eman- 
.cipated  several  of  his  slaves,  and  sent  them  to  Liberia.  Here  follows 
an  extract  from  his  speech ;  let  Southern  politicians  read  it  attentively, 
and  imbibe  a  moiety  of  the  spirit  of  patriotism  which  it  breathes : 

"  Sir,  I  am  gratified  to  perceive  that  no  gentleman  has  yet  risen  in  this  Hall,  the 
avowed  advocate  of  slavery.  The  day  has  gone  by  when  such  a  voice  could  be  lis 
tened  to  with  patience,  or  even  with  forbearance.  I  even  regret,  sir,  that  we  should 
find  those  amongst  us  who  enter  the  lists  of  discussion  as  its  apologists,  except  alone 
upon  the  ground  of  uncontrollable  necessity.  And  yet,  who  could  have  listened 
to  the  very  eloquent  remarks  of  the  gentleman  from  Brunswick,  without  being 
forced  to  conclude  that  he  at  least  considered  slavery,  however  not  to  be  defended 
upon  principle,  yet  as  being  divested  of  much  of  its  enormity,  as  you  approach  it  in 
practice. 

"  Sir,  if  there  be  one  who  concurs  with  that  gentleman  in  the  harmless  character 
of  this  institution,  let  me  request  him  to  compare  the  condition  of  the  slaveholding 
portion  of  this  commonwealth — barren,  desolate  and  seared  as  it  were  by  the  avenging 
\and  of  Heaven — with  the  descriptions  which  we  have  of  this  country  from  those 
Who  first  broke  its  virgin  soil.  To  what  is  this  change  ascribable  ?  Alone  to  the 
withering  and  blasting  effects  of  slavery.  If  this  does  not  satisfy  him,  let  me  request 
him  to  extend  his  travels  to  the  Northern  States  of  this  Union,  and  beg  him  to  con 
trast  the  happiness  and  contentment  which  prevail  throughout  that  country,  the 
busy  and  cheerful  sound  of  industry,  the  rapid  and  swelling  growth  of  their  popula 
tion,  their  means  and  institutions  of  education,  their  skill  and  proficiency  in  the 
useful  arts,  their  enterprise  and  public  spirit,  the  monuments  of  their  commercial 
and  manufacturing  industry ;  and,  above  all,  their  devoted  attachment  to  the  govern 
ment  from  which  they  derive  their  protection,  with  the  derision,  discontent,  indolence 
and  poverty  of  the  Southern  country,  To  what,  Sir,  is  all  this  ascribable  ?  To  that 
vice  in  the  organization  of  society,  by  which  one-half  of  its  inhabitants  are  arrayed  in 
interest  and  feeling  against  the  other  half—io  that  unfortunate  state  of  society  in 
which  freemen  regard  labor  as  disgraceful,  and  slaves  shrink  from  it  as  a  burden 
tyrannically  imposed  upon  them — to  that  condition  of  things  in  which  hah0  a  million 
of  your  population  can  feel  no  sympathy  with  the  society  in  the  prosperity  of  which 
they  are  forbidden  to  participate,  and  no  attachment  to  a  government  at  whose 
hands  they  receive  nothing  but  injustice. 

"If  this  should  not  be  sufficient,  and  the  curious  and  incredulous  inquirer  should 
suggest  that  the  contrast  which  has  been  adverted  to,  and  which  is  so  manifest, 
might  be  traced  to  a  difference  of  climate,  or  other  causes  distinct  from  slavery 
itself,  permit  me  to  refer  him  to  the  two  States  of  Kentucky  and  Ohio.  No  differ 
ence  of  soil,  no  diversity  of  climate,  no  diversity  in  the  original  settlement  of  those 
two  States,  can  account  for  the  remarkable  disproportion  in  their  natural  advance 
ment.  Separated  by  a  river  alone,  they  seem  to  have  been  purposely  and  providen 


54  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 

tially  designed  to  exhibit  in  their  future  histories  the  difference  which  necessarily  results 
from  a  country  free  from,  and  a  country  afflicted  with,  the  curse  of  slavery. 

;'  Vain  and  idle  is  every  effort  to  strangle  this  inquiry.  As  well  might  you  attempt 
to  chain  the  ocean,  or  stay  the  avenging  thunderbolts  of  Heaven^  as  to  drive  the 
people  from  any  inquiry  which  may  result  in  their  better  condition.  This  is  too 
deep,  too  engrossing  a  subject  of  consideration.  It  addresses  itself  too  strongly  to 
our  interests,  to  our  passions,  and  to  our  fueling,?.  I  shall  advocate  no  scheme  that 
does  not  respect  the  right  of  property,  so  far  as  it  is  entitled  to  be  respected,  with  a 
just  regard  to  the  safety  and  resources  of  the  State.  I  would  approach  the  subject 
as  one  of  great  magnitude  and  delicacy,  as  one  whose  varied  and  momentous  con 
sequences  demand  the  calmest  and  most  deliberate  investigation.  But  still,  sir,  1 
would  approach  it — aye,  delicate  as  it  may  be,  encompassed  as  it  may  be  with 
difficulties  and  hazards,  I  would  still  approach  it.  The  people  demand  it.  Their 
security  requires  it.  In  the  language  of  the  wise  and  prophetic  Jefferson,  'You. 
must  approach  it — you  must  bear  it— you  must  adopt  some  plan  of  emancipatioi . 
or  worse  will  follow.'  " 

Mr.  Curtis,  in  a  speech  in  the  Virginia  Legislature  in  1832,  said : 

"  There  is  a  malaria  in  the  atmosphere  of  these  regions,  which  the  new  comei 
shuns,  as  being  deleterious  to  his  views  and  habits.  See  the  wide-spreading  ruin 
which  the  avarice  of  our  ancestral  government  has  produced  in  the  South,  as  wit 
nessed  in  a  sparse  population  of  freemen,  deserted  habitations,  and  fields  without 
culture  !  Strange  to  tell,  even  the  wolf,  driven  back  long  since  by  the  approach  of 
man,  now  returns,  after  the  lapse  of  a  hundred  years,  to  howl  over  the  desolations 
of  slavery." 

Mr.  Moore,  also  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  in  speaking 
of  the  evils  of  slavery,  said  : 

"  The  first  I  shall  mention  is  the  irresistible  tendency  which  it  has  to  undermine 
and  destroy  everything  like  virtue  and  morality  in  the  community.  If  we  look 
back  through  the  long  course  of  time  which  has  elapsed  since  the  creation  to  the 
present  moment,  we  shall  scarcely  be  able  to  point  out  a  people  whose  situation 
was  not,  in  many  respects,  preferable  to  our  own,  and  that  of  the  other  States,  in 
•which  negro  slavery  exists. 

"  In  that  part  of  the  State  below  tide- water,  the  whole  face  of  the  country  wears 
an  appearance  of  almost  utter  desolation,  distressing  to  the  beholder.  The  very 
spot  on  which  our  ancestors  landed,  a  little  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  ap 
pears  to  be  on  the  eve  of  again  becoming  the  haunt  of  wild  beasts." 

Mr.  Hives,  of  Campbell  county,  said: 

"  On  the  multiplied  and  desolating  evils  of  slavery,  he  was  not  disposed  to  say 
much.  The  curse  and  deteriorating  consequence  were  within  the  observation  and 
experience  of  the  members  of  the  House  and  the  people  of  Virginia,  and  it  did  not 
seem  to  him  that  there  could  be  two  opinions  about  it." 

Mr.  Powell  said  : 

"  I  can  scarcely  persuade  myself  that  there  is  a  solitary  gentleman  in  this  House 
who  will  not  readily  admit  that  slavery  is  an  evil,  and  that  its  removal,  if  practica 
ble,  is  a  consummation  most  devoutly  to  be  wished.  I  have  not  heard,  nor  do  I 
expejtto  hear,  a  voice  raised  in  this  Hall  to  the  contrary." 

In  the  language  of  the  New  Yor'k  Times,  "  we  might  multiply  extracts 
almost  indefinitely  from  Virginia  authorities — testifying  to  the  blight 
and  degradation  that  have  overtaken  the  Old  Dominion,  in  every  depart 
ment  of  her  affairs.  Her  commerce  gone,  her  agriculture  decaying,  her 
land  falling  in  value,  her  mining  and'  manufactures  nothing,  her  schools 
dying  out, — she  presents,  according  to  the  testimony  of  her  own  sons. 


FREE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  55 

the  saddest  ot  all  pictures — that  of  a  sinking  and  dying  State."  Every 
year  leaves  her  in  a  worse  condition  than  it  found  her ;  and  as  it  is  with 
Virginia,  so  it  is  with  the  entire  South.  In  the  terse  language  of  Gov. 
Wise,  "all  have  grown  poor  together."  The  black  god  of  slavery, 
w'lich  the  South  has  worshipped  for  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine 
years,  is  but  a  devil  in  disguise ;  and  if  we  would  save  ourselves  from 
being  ingulfed  in  utter  ruin  we  must  repudiate  this  foul  god,  for  a 
purer  deity,  and  abandon  his  altars  for  a  holier  shrine.  No  time  is  to 
be  lost ;  his  fanatical  adorers,  the  despotic  adversaries  of  human  Iibert3r, 
are  concocting  schemes  for  the  enslavement  of  all  the  laboring  classes, 
irrespective  of  race  or  color.  The  issue  is  before  us ;  we  cannot  evade 
It;  we  must  meet  it  with  firmness,  and  with  unflinching  valor. 

We  have  been  credibly  informed  by  a  gentleman  from  Powhattan 
county  in  Virginia,  that  in  the  year  1836  or  '37,  or  about  that  time,  tho 
Hon.  Abbott  Lawrence,  of  Boston,  backed  by  his  brother  Amos  and 
other  millionaires  of  New  England,  went  down  to  Richmond  with  the 
sole  view  of  reconnoitering  the  manufacturing  facilities  of  that  place — 
fully  determined,  if  pleased  with  the  water-power,  to  erect  a  large  num 
ber  of  cotton-mills  and  machine-shops.  He  had  been  in  the  capital  of 
Virginia  only  a  day  or  two  before  he  discovered,  much  to  his  gratifica 
tion,  that  nature  had  shaped  everything  to  his  liking ;  and  as  he  was  a 
business  man  who  transacted  business  in  a  business-like  manner,  he  lost 
no  time  in  making  preliminary  arrangements  for  the  consummation  of 
Jiis  noble  purpose.  His  mission  was  one  of  peace  and  promise  ;  others 
were  to  share  the  benefits  of  his  concerted  and  laudable  scheme ;  thou 
sands  of  poor  boys  and  girls  in  Virginia,  instead  of  growing  up  in  ex 
treme  poverty  and  ignorance,  or  of  having  to  emigrate  to  the  free  States 
of  the  West,  were  to  have  avenues  of  profitable  employment  opened  to 
them  at  home ;  thus  they  would  be  enabled  to  earn  an  honest  and  reputa 
ble  living,  to  establish  and  sustain  free  schools,  free  libraries,  free  lec 
tures,  and  free  presses,  to  become  useful  and  exemplary  members  of  so 
ciety,  and  to  die  fit  candidates  for  heaven.  The  magnanimous  New 
Englander  was  in  ecstasies  with  the  prospect  that  opened  before  him. 
Individually,  so  far  as  mere  money  was  concerned,  he  was  perfectly  in 
dependent  ;  his  industry  and  economy  in  early  life  had  secured  to  him 
the  ownership  and  control  of  an  ample  fortune.  With  the  aid  of  eleven 
other  men,  each  equal  to  himself,  he  could  havo  bought  the  whole  city  of 
Richmond — negroes  and  all — though  it  is  not  to  be  presumed  that  he 
would  have  disgraced  his  name  by  becoming  a  trader  in  human  flesh. 
But  he  was  not  selfish ;  unlike  the  arrogant  and  illiberal  slaveholder,  he 
did  not  regard  himself  as  the  centre  around  whom  everybody  else  should 
revolve.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  a  genuine  philanthropist.  While, 
with  a  shrewdness  that  will  command  the  admiration  of  every  practical 
cmsiness  man,  he  engaged  in  nothing  that  did  not  )well  the  dimensions 


56  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 

of  bis  own  purse,  he  was  yet  always  solicitous  to  invest  his  capital  in  a 
manner  calculated  to  promote  the  interests  of  those  around  him.  Nor 
was  he  satisfied  with  simply  furnishing  the  means  whereby  his  Jess  for 
tunate  neighbors  were  to  become  prosperous,  intelligent  and  contented. 
With  his  generous  heart  and  sagacious  mind,  he  delighted  to  aid  them 
in  making  a  judicious  application  of  his  wealth  to  their  own  use.  More 
over,  as  a  member  of  society  >  he  felt  that  the  community  had  some  rea 
sonable  claims  upon  him,  and  he  made  it  obligatory  on  himself  constant 
ly  to  devise  plans  and  exert  his  personal  efforts  for  the  public  good. 
Such  was  the  character  of  the  distinguished  manufacturer  who  honored 
Kichmond  with  his  presence  twenty  years  since ;  such  was  the  character 
of  the  men  whom  he  represented,  and  such  were  the  grand  designs  wrhich 
they  sought  to  accomplish. 

To  the  enterprising  and  moneyed  descendant  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  it 
was  a  matter  of  no  little  astonishment,  that  the  immense  water-power 
of  Richmond  had  been  so  long  neglected.  He  expressed  his  surprise  to 
a  number  of  Virginians,  and  was  at  a  loss  to  know  why  they  had  not, 
long  prior  to  the  period  of  his  visit  amongst  them,  availed  themselves  of 
the  powerful  element  that  is  eternally  gushing  and  foaming  over  the  falls 
of  James  Elver.  Innocent  man !  He  was  utterly  unconscious  of  the 
fact  that  he  was  "  interfering  with  the  beloved  institutions  of  the  South," 
and  little  was  he  prepared  to  withstand  the  terrible  denunciations  that 
were  immediately  showered  on  his  head  through  the  columns  of  the 
Richmond  papers.  Few  words  will  suffice  to  tell  the  sequel.  Those 
negro-driving  sheets,  whose  hireling  policy,  for  the  last  five  and 
twenty  years,  has  been  to  support  the  worthless  black  slave  and  his 
tyrannical  master  at  the  expense  of  the  free  white  laborer,  wrote  down 
fhe  enterprise,  and  the  noble  son  of  New  England,  abused,  insulted  and 
disgusted,  quietly  returned  to  Massachusetts,  and  there  employed  his 
capital  in  building  up  the  cities  of  Lowell  and  Lawrence,  either  of  which, 
in  all  those  elements  of  material  and  social  prosperity  that  make  up  the 
greatness  of  States,  is  already  far  in  advance  of  the  most  important  of  all 
the  seedy  and  squalid  slave-towns  in  the  Old  Dominion.  Such  is  an  ink 
ling  of  the  infamous  means  that  have  been  resorted  to,  from  time  to 
time,  for  the  purpose  of  upholding  and  perpetuating  in  America  the 
accursed  system  of  human  slavery. 

How  any  rational  man  in  this  or  any  other  country,  with  the  astound 
ing  contrasts  between  Freedom  and  Slavery  ever  looming  in  his  view*, 
can  offer  an  apology  for  the  existing  statism  of  the  South,  is  to  us  * 
most  inexplicable  mystery.  Indeed,  we  cannot  conceive  it  possible  thai 
the  conscience  of  any  man,  who  is  really  sane,  would  permit  him  to  be 
come  the  victim  of  such  an  egregious  and  diabolical  absurdity.  There 
fore,  at  this  period  of  our  history,  with  the  light  of  the  past,  the  reality 
of  the  present,  and  the  prospect  of  t'-c  future,  all  so  prominent  and  so 


FEEE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  57 

palpable,  we  infer  that  every  person  who  sets  up  an  unequivocal  defence 
of  the  institution  of  slavery,  must,  of  necessity,  be  either  a  fool,  a  knave, 
or  a  madman. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  pro-slavery  men  look  at  but  one  side 
of  the  question.  Of  all  the  fanatics  in  the  country,  they  have,  of  late, 
become  the  most  unreasonable  and  ridiculous.  Let  them  deliberately 
view  the  subject  of  slavery  in  all  its  aspects  and  bearings,  and  if  they 
are  possessed  of  honest  hearts  and  convincible  minds,  they  will  readily 
perceive  the  grossness  of  their  past  errors,  renounce  their  allegiance  to 
a  cause  so  unjust  and  disgraceful,  and  at  once  enroll  themselves  among 
the  hosts  of  Freedom  and  the  friends  of  universal  Liberty.  There  are 
thirty-one  States  in  the  Union ;  let  them  drop  California,  or  any  other 
new  free  State,  and  then  institute  fifteen"  comparisons,  first  comparing 
New  York  with  Virginia,  Pennsylvania  with  Carolina,  Massachusetts 
with  Georgia,  and  so  on,  until  they  have  exhausted  the  catalogue.  Then, 
for  once,  let  them  be  bold  enough  to  listen  to  the  admonitions  of  their 
own  souls,  and  if  they  do  not  soon  start  to  their  feet  demanding  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  it  will  only  be  because  they  have  reasons  for  sup 
pressing  their  inmost  sentiments.  Whether  we  compare  the  old  free 
States  with  the  old  slave  States,  or  the  new  free  States  with  the  new 
slave  States,  the  difference,  unmistakable  and  astounding,  is  substantially 
the  same.  All  the  free  States  are  alike,  and  all  the  slave  States 
are  alike.  In  the  former,  wealth,  intelligence,  power,  progress,  and 
prosperity,  are  the  prominent  characteristics ;  in  the  latter,  poverty, 
ignorance,  imbecility,  inertia,  and  extravagance,  are  the  distinguishing 
features.  To  be  convinced,  it  is  only  necessary  for  us  to  open  our  eyes 
and  look  at  facts — to  examine  the  statistics  of  the  country,  to  free  our 
selves  from  obstinacy  and  prejudice,  and  to  unbar  our  minds  to  the  con 
victions  of  truth.  Let  figures  be  the  umpire.  Close  attention  to  the 
preceding  and  subsequent  tables  is  all  we  ask ;  so  soon  as  they  shall  be 
duly  considered  and  understood,  the  primary  object  of  this  work  will 
have  been  accomplished. 

Not  content  with  eating  out  the  vitals  of  the  South,  slavery,  in  keep 
ing  with  the  character  which  it  has  acquired  for  insatiety  and  rapine,  is 
beginning  to  make  rapid  encroachments  on  new  territory ;  and  as  a  basis 
for  a  few  remarks  on  the  blasting  influence  which  it  is  shedding  over 
the  broad  and  fertile  domains  of  the  "West,  which,  in  accordance  with 
the  views  and  resolutions  offered  by  the  immortal  Jefferson,  should 
have  been  irrevocably  dedicated  to  freedom,  we  beg  leave  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  reader  to  a  plain,  faithful  presentation  of  the  phi 
losophy  of  free  and  slave  labor.  Says  the  North  American  and  United 
States  Gazette  : 

"We  have  but  to  compare  the  States,  possessing  equal  natural  advantages,  ia 
which  the  two  kinds  of  labor  are  employed,  in  crder  to  decide  with  entire  confl 

3* 


58  COMPARISONS   BETWEEN   THE 

dence  as  to  which  kind  is  the  more  profitable.  At  the  origin  of  the  government 
Virginia,  with  a  much  larger  extent  of  territory  than  New  York,  contained  a  popu 
lation  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thcusand,  and  sent  ten  representatives  to  Con 
gress  ;  while  New  York  contained  a  population  of  three  hundred  and  forty  thou 
sand,  and  sent  six  representatives  to  Congress.  Behold  how  the  figures  are 
reversed.  The  population  of  New  York  is  three  and  a  half  millions,  represented 
by  thirty-three  members  in  Congress;  while  the  population  of  Virginia  is  but  little 
more  than  one  and  a  half  millions,  represented  by  thirteen  members  in  Congress. 
It  is  the  vital  sap  of  free  labor  that  makes  the  one  tree  so  thrifty  and  vigorous,  so 
capable  of  bearing  with  all  ease  the  fruit  of  such  a  population.  And  it  is  slave 
labor  which  strikes  a  decadence  through  the  other,  drying  up  many  of  its  branches 
with  a  fearful  sterility,  and  rendering  the  rest  but  scantily  fruitful ;  really  incapable 
of  sustaining  more.  Look  at  Ohio,  teeming  with  inhabitants,  its  soil  loaded  with 
every  kind  of  agricultural  wealth,  its  people  eng-aged  in  every  kind  of  freedom's 
diversified  employments,  abounding  with  numberless  happy  homes,  and  with  all 
the  trophies  of  civilization,  and  it  exhibits  the  magic  effect  of  free  labor,  waking  a 
Wilderness  into  life  and  beauty ;  while  Kentucky,  with  equal  or  superior  natural 
advantages,  nature's  very  garden  in  this  "Western  world,  which  commenced  its 
career  at  a  much  earlier  date,  and  was  in  a  measure  populous  Tfhcn  Ohio  was  but 
a  slumbering  forest,  but  which  in  all  the  elements  of  progress,  is  now  left  far,  very 
far,  behind  its  young  rival,  shows  how  slave  labor  hinders  the  development  of 
wealth  among  a  people,  and  brings  a  blight  on  their  prosperity.  The  one  is  a 
grand  and  beautiful  poem  in  honor  of  free  labor.  The  other  is  an  humble  confes 
sion  to  the  world  of  the  inferiority  of  slave  labor." 

"Were  we  simply  a  freesoiler,  or  anything  else  less  than  a  thorough  and 
uncompromising  abolitionist,  we  should  certainly  tax  our  ability  to  the 
utmost  to  get  up  a  cogent  argument  against  the  extension  of  slavery  over 
any  part  of  our  domain  where  it  does  not  now  exist ;  but  as  our  prin 
ciples  are  hostile  to  the  institution  even  where  it  does  exist,  and,  there 
fore,  by  implication  and  in  fact,  more  hostile  still  to  its  introduction  into 
new  territory,  we  forbear  the  preparation  of  any  special  remarks  on  this 
particular  subject. 

With  regard  to  the  unnational  and  demoralizing  system  of  slavery,  we 
believe  the  majority  of  Northern  people  are  too  scrupulous.  They  seem 
to  think  that  it  is  enough  for  them  to  be  mere  freesoilers,  to  keep  in 
check  the  diffusive  element  of  slavery,  and  to  prevent  it  from  crossing 
over  the  bounds  within  which  it  is  now  regulated  by  municipal  law. 
Remiss  in  their  national  duties,  as  we  contend,  they  make  no  positive 
attack  upon  the  institution  in  the  Southern  States.  Only  a  short  while 
since,  one  of  their  ablest  journals— the  North  American  and  United 
States  Gazette,  published  in  Philadelphia — made  use  of  the  following 


"With  slavery  in  the  States,  we  make  no  pretence  of  having  anything  politically 
to  do.  For  better  or  for  worse,  the  system  belongs  solely  to  the  people  of  those 
States ;  and  is  separated  by  an  impassable  gulf  of  State  sovereignty  from  any  legal 
intervention  of  ours.  We  cannot  vote  it  down  any  more  than  we  can  vote  down 
the  institution  of  caste  in  Hindostan,  or  abolish  polygamy  in  the  Sultan's  dominions. 
Thus,  precluded  from  all  political  action  in  reference  to  it,  prevented  from  touching 
one  stone  of  the  edifice,  not  the  slightest  responsibility  attaches  to  us  as  citizens 
for  its  continued  existence.  But  on  the  question  of  extending  slavery  over  the 
free  Territories  of  the  United  States,  it  is  our  right,  it  is  our  imperative  duty  tc 
think,  to  feel,  to  speak  and  to  vote.  We  cannot  interfere  to  cover  the  shadows  of 
slavery  with  the  sunshine  of  freedom,  but  we  can  interfere  to  prevent  the  sunshine 
of  freedom  from  being  eclipsed  by  the  shadows  of  slavery.  We  can  interpose  tc 
etay  the  progress  of  that  institution,  which  aims  to  drive  free  labor  from  its  own 
heritage.  Kansas  should  be  divided  up  into  countless  homes  for  the  ownership  of 


FREE  AND  THE  SLAVE  STATES.  59 

men  who  have  a  right  to  the  fruit  of  their  own  labors.  Free  labor  would  make  it 
bud  and  blossom  like  the  rose ;  would  cover  it  with  beauty,  and  draw  from  it 
boundless  wealth ;  would  throng  it  with  population;  would  make  States,  nations, 
empires  out  of  it,  prosperous,  powerful,  intelligent  and  free,  illustrating  on  a  wide 
theatre  the  beneficent  ends  of  Providence  in  the  formation  of  our  government,  to 
advance  and  elevate  the  millions  of  our  race,  and,  like  the  heart  in  the  body,  from 
its  central  position,  sending  out  on  every  side,  far  and  near,  the  vital  influences  of 
freedom  and  civilization.  May  that  region,  therefore,  be  secured  to  free  labor." 

Now  we  fully  and  heartily  indorse  every  line  of  the  latter  part  of  this 
extract ;  but,  with  all  due  deference  to  our  sage  contemporary,  wo  do 
most  emphatically  dissent  from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the  first  part. 
Pray,  permit  us  to  ask — have  the  people  of  the  North  no  interest  in  the 
United  States  as  a  nation,  and  do  they  not  see  that  slavery  is  a  great 
injury  and  disgrace  to  the  whole  country  ?  Did  they  not,  in  "the  days 
that  tried  men's  souls,"  strike  as  hard  blows  to  secure  the  independence 
of  Georgia  as  they  did  in  defending  the  liberties  of  Massachusetts,  and  is 
it  not  notoriously  true  that  the  Toryism  of  South  Carolina  prolonged  the 
war  two  years  at  least?  Is  it  not,  moreover,  equally  true  that  the 
oligarchs  of  South  Carolina  have  been  unmitigated  pests  and  bores  to  the 
General  Government  ever  since  it  was  organized,  and  that  the  free  and 
conscientious  people  of  the  North  are  virtually  excluded  from  her  soil, 
in  consequence  of  slavery  ?  It  is  a  well-known  and  incontestable  fact, 
that  the  Northern  States  furnished  about  two-thirds  of  all  the  American 
troops  engaged  in  the  Revolutionary  War;  and,  though  they  were 
neither  more  nor  lass  brave  or  patriotic  than  their  fellow-soldiers  of  the 
South,  yet,  inasmuch  as  the  independence  of  our  country  was  mainly 
secured  by  virtue  of  their  numerical  strength,  we  think  they  ought  to 
consider  it  not  only  their  right  but  their  duty  to  make  a  firm  and  deci 
sive  effort  to  save  the  States  which  they  fought  to  free,  from  falling 
under  the  yoke  of  a  worse  tyranny  than  that  which  overshadowed  them 
under  the  reign  of  King  George  the  Third.  Freemen  of  the  North !  we 
earnestly  entreat  you  to  think  of  these  things.  Hitherto,  as  mere  free- 
eoilers,  you  have  approached  but  half-way  to  the  line  of  your  duty  ;  now, 
for  your  own  sakes  and  for  ours,  and  for  the  purpose  of  perpetuating 
this  great  Republic,  which  your  fathers  and  our  fathers  founded  in  sep 
tennial  streams  of  blood,  we  ask  you,  in  all  seriousness,  to  organize  your 
selves  as  one  man  under  the  banners  of  Liberty,  and  to  aid  us  in  exter 
minating  slavery,  which  is  the  only  thing  that  militates  against  our 
complete  aggrandizement  as  a  nation. 

In  this  extraordinary  crisis  of  affairs,  no  man  can  be  a  true  patriot 
without  first  becoming  an  abolitionist.  And  here,  perhaps,  we  may  be 
pardoned  for  the  digression  necessary  to  show  the  exact  definition  of 
the  terms  abolish,  abolition^  abolitionist.  We  have  looked  in  vain  for 
an  explanation  of  the  signification  of  these  words  in  any  Southern  pub 
lication  ;  for  no  dictionary  has  erer  yet  been  published  in  the  South,  nor 
i*  there  the  least  probati.ity  that  one  ever  will  be  published  within  bei 


60  COMPARISONS    BETWEEN   THE 

borders,  until  slavery  is  abolished;  but,  thanks  to  Heaven,  a  portion  of 
this  continent  is  what  our  Kevolutionary  Fathers,  and  the  Fathers  of 
the  Constitution,  fought  and  labored  and  prayed  to  make  it — a  land  of 
freedom,  of  power,  of  progress,  of  prosperity,  of  intelligence,  of  reli 
gion,  of  literature,  of  commerce,  of  science,  of  arts,  of  agriculture,  of 
manufactures,  of  ingenuity,  of  enterprise,  of  vrcalth,  of  renown,  of 
goodness,  and  of  grandeur.  From  that  glorious  part  of  our  confederacy 
— from  the  North,  whence,  on  account  of  slavery  in  the  South,  we  are 
under  the  humiliating  necessity  of  procuring  almost  everything  that  is 
useful  or  ornamental,  from  primers  to  Bibles,  from  wafers  to  printing 
presses,  from  ladles  to  locomotives,  and  from  portfolios  to  portraits  am 
pianos — comes  to  us  a  huge  volume  bearing  the  honored  name  of  Web 
ster—Noah  Webster,  who,  after  thirty-five  years  of  unremitting  toil, 
completed  a  work  which  is,  we  believe,  throughout  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States,  justly  regarded  as  the  standard  vocabulary  of  the 
English  language — and  in  it  the  terms  abolish,  abolition,  and  abolitionists, 
are  defined  as  follows  : 

"Abolish,  v.  t.  To  make  void  ;  to  annul;  to  abrogate;  applied  chiefly  and 
appropriately  to  established  laws,  contracts,  rites,  customs  and  institutions  ;  as  tc 
abolish  laws  by  a  repeal,  actual  or  virtual.  To  destroy  or  put  an  end  to  ;  as  to 
abolish  idols." 

"Abolition,  n.  The  act  of  abolishing  ;  or  the  state  of  being  abolished;  an 
annulling ;  abrogation  ;  utter  destruction  ;  as  the  abolition  of  laws,  decrees, 
ordinances,  rites,  customs,  etc.  The  putting  an  end  to  slavery  ;  emancipation." 

"  Abolitionist,  n.  A  person  who  favors  abolition,  or  the  immediate  emancipation 
of  slaves." 

There,  gentlemen  of  the  South,  you  have  the  definitions  of  the  trans 
itive  verb  abolish,  and  its  two  derivative  nouns,  abolition  and  abolition 
ist  ;  can  you,  with  the  keenest  possible  penetration  of  vision,  detect  in 
either  of  these  words  even  a  tittle  of  the  opprobrium  which  the 
oligarchs,  in  their  wily  and  inhuman  efforts  to  enslave  all  working 
classes  irrespective  of  race  or  color,  have  endeavored  to  attach  to  them  ? 
We  know  you  cannot ;  abolition  is  but  another  name  for  patriotism,  and 
its  other  special  synonyms  are  generosity,  magnanimity,  reason,  prudence, 
wisdom,  religion,  progress,  justice  and  humanity. 

Non-slaveholders  of  the  South  !  farmers,  mechanics  and  workingmen, 
we  take  this  occasion  to  assure  you  that  the  slaveholding  politicians 
whom  you  have  elected  to  offices  of  honor  and  profit,  have  hoodwinked 
you,  trifled  with  you,  and  used  you  as  mere  tools  for  the  consummation  of 
their  wicked' designs.  They  have  purposely  kept  you  in  ignorance,  and 
have,  by  molding  your  passions  and  prejudices  to  suit  themselves, 
induced  you  to  act  in  direct  opposition  to  your  dearest  rights  and  inte 
rests.  By  a  system  of  the  grossest  subterfuge  and  misrepresentation,  and 
in  order  to  avert,  for  a  season,  the  vengeance  that  will  most  assuredly 
overtake  them  ere  long,  they  have  taught  you  to  hate  the  lovers  of 
liberty,  who  are  your  best  and  only  true  friends.  Now,  as  one  of  your 


FTCEfc    AND    THE    SLAVE    STATES.  6l 

own  number,  we  appeal  to  you  to  join  us  in  our  earnest  and  timely  efforta 
to  rescue  the  generous  soil  of  the  South  from  the  usurped  and  desolating 
control  of  these  political  vampires.  Once  and  forever,  at  least  so  far  as 
this  country  is  concerned,  the  infernal  question  of  slavery  must  be  dis 
posed  of ;  a  speedy  and  absolute  abolishment  of  the  whole  system  is 
the  true  policy  of  the  South— and  this  is  the  policy  which  we  propose 
to  pursue.  "Will  you  aid  us,  will  you  assist  us,  will  you  be  freemen,  or 
will  /ou  be  slaves?  These  are  questions  of  vital  importance  ;  weigh 
their,  well  in  your  minds ;  come  to  a  prudent  and  firm  decision,:  and 
hold  yourselves  in  readiness  to  act  in  accordance  therewith.  You  must 
either  be  for  us  or  against  us — anti-slavery  or  pro-slavery  ;  it  is  impossi 
ble  for  you  to  occupy  a  neutral  ground ;  it  is  as  certain  as  fate  itself,  that 
if  you  do  not  voluntarily  oppose  the  usurpations  and  outrages  of  the 
slavocrats,  they  will  force  you  into  involuntary  compliance  with  their 
infamous  measures.  Consider  well  the  aggressive,  fraudulent  and  despo 
tic  power  which  they  have  exercised  in  the  affairs  of  Kansas ;  and 
remember  that,  if,  by  adhering  to  erroneous  principles  of  neutrality  or 
non-resistance,  you  allow  them  to  force  the  curse  of  slavery  on  that  or 
any  other  vast  and  fertile  field,  the  broad  area  of  all  the  surrounding 
States  and  Territories — the  whole  nation,  in  fact — will  soon  fall  a  prey 
to  their  diabolical  intrigues  and  machinations.  Thus,  if  you  are  not 
vigilant,  will  they  take  advantage  of  your  neutrality,  and  make  you  and 
others  the  victims  of  their  inhuman  despotism.  Do  not  reserve  the 
strength  of  your  arms  until  you  shall  have  been  rendered  powerless  to 
strike  ;  the  present  is  the  proper  time  for  action  ;  under  all  the  circum 
stances,  apathy  or  indifference  is  a  crime.  First  ascertain,  as  nearly  as 
you  can,  the  precise  nature  and  extent  of  your  duty,  and  then,  without 
a  moment's  delay,  perform  it  in  good  faith.  To  facilitate  you  in  deter 
mining  what  considerations  of  right,  justice  and  humanity  require  at 
your  hands,  is  one  of  the  primary  objects  of  this  work ;  and  we  shall 
certainly  fail  in  our  desire  if  we  do  not  accomplish  our  task  in  a  manner 
acceptable  to  God  and  advantageous  to  man. 

But  we  are  carrying  this  chapter  beyond  all  ordidHry  bounds;,  and 
yet,  there  are  many  important  particulars  in  which  we  have  drawn  no 
comparison  between  the  free  and  slave  States.  The  more  weighty 
remarks  which  we  intei_ded  to  offer  in  relation  to  the  new  States  of  the 
West  and  Southwest,  free  and  slave,  .shall  appear  in  the  succeeding  chap 
ter.  With  regard  to  agriculture,  and  all  the  multifarious  interests  of 
husbandry,  we  deem  it  quite  unnecessary  to  say  more.  Cotton  has  been 
shorn  of  its  magic  power,  and  is  no  longer  King ;  dried  grass,  com 
monly  called  hay,  is,  it  seems,  the  rightful  heir  to  the  throne.  Com- 
morce,  Manufactures,  Literature,  and  other  important  subjects,  shall  bs 
considered  as  we  progress. 


CHAPTER  n. 

HOW     SLAVERY     CAN     BE     ABOLISHED. 


Out  age,  marked  by  recMess  activity  in  almost,  all  departments  of  knowledge,  auJ  \ry 
struggles  and  aspirations  before  unknown,  is  stamped  by  no  characteristic  more  deeply  thas 
by  a  desire  to  establish  or  extend  freedom  in  the  political  societies  of  mankind  ..... 
There  are  many  persons  who  pretend  to  admire  liberty,  but  withhold  it  from  the  people  on 
the  plea  that  they  are  not  prepared  for  it.  Unquestionably,  all  races  are  not  prepared  for 
the  same  amount  of  liberty.  But  two  things  are  certain,  that  all  nations,  and  especially 
those  belonging  to  our  own  civilized  family,  prove  that  they  are  prepared  for  the  beginning 
of  liberty,  by  desiring  it  and  insisting  upon  it  and  that  you  cannot  otherwise  prepare  nations 
for  enjoying  liberty  than  by  beginning  to  establish  it,  as  you  best  prepare  nations  for  a  high 
Christianity  by  beginning  to  preach  it.—  LIEBER. 

PEELIMINAEY  to  our  elucidation  of  what  we  conceive  to  be  the  most 
discreet,  fair  and  feasible  plan  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  we  propose 
to  offer  a  few  additional  reasons  why  it  should  be  abolished.  Among 
the  thousand  and  one  arguments  that  present  themselves  in  support  of 
our  position  —  which,  before  we  part  with  the  reader,  we  shall  endeavor 
to  define  so  clearly,  that  it  shall  be  regarded  as  ultra  only  by  those  who 
imperfectly  understand  it  —  is  the  influence  which  slavery  invariably 
exercises  in  depressing  the  value  of  real  estate  ;  and  as  this  is  a  matter 
in  which  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  of  the  West,  and  of  the 
Southwest,  are  most  deeply  interested,  we  shall  discuss  it  in  a  sort  of 
preamble  of  some  length. 

The  slaveholding  oligarchy  say  we  cannot  abolish  slavery  without 
infringing  on  the  right  of  property.  Again  we  tell  them  we  do  not 
recognize  property  in  men  ;  bufc  even  if  we  did,  and  if  we  were  to 
inventory  the  negroes  at  quadruple  the  value  of  their  last  assessment, 
still,  impelled  b$  a  sense  of  duty  to  others,  and  as  a  matter  of  simple 
justice,  to  ourselves,  we,  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  would  be 
fully  warranted  in  emancipating  all  the  slaves  at  once,  and  that,  too; 
without  any  compensation  whatever  to  those  who  claim  to  be  their 
absolute  masters  and  owners.  We  will  explain.  In  1850,  the  average 
value  per  acre,  of  land  in  the  Northern  States  was  $28  07  ;  in  the 
Northwestern  $1139;  in  the  Southern  $534;  and  in  the  Southwes 
tern  $6  20.  Now,  in  consequence  of  numerous  natural  advantages, 
among  which  may  be  enumerated  the  greater  mildness  of  climate,  rich 
ness  of  soil,  deposits  of  precious  metals,  abundance,  and  spaciousness  of 
harbors,  and  superexcellence  of  water-power,  we  contend  that,  had  it 
not  been  for  slavery,  the  average  value  of  land  in  all  the  Southern  and 


HOW    SLAVERY    CAN   BE   ABOLISHED.  63 

Southwestern  States,  would  have  been  at  least  equal  to  the  average 
value  of  the  same  in  the  Northern  States.  We  conclude,  therefore,  and 
we  think  the  conclusion  is  founded  on  principles  of  equity,  that 
you,  the  slaveholders,  are  indebted  to  us,  the  non-slaveholders,  in  the 
sum  of  $22  73,  which  is  the  difference  between  $28  07  and  $5  34,  on 
every  acre  of  Southern  soil  in  our  possession.  This  claim  we  bring 
against  you,  because  slavery,  which  has  inured  exclusively  to  your  own 
benefit,  if,  indeed,  it  has  been  beneficial  at  all,  has  shed  a  blighting  influ 
ence  over  our  lands,  thereby  keeping  them  out  of  market,  and  damaging 
every  acre  to  the  amount  specified.  Sirs  !  are  you  ready  to  settle  the 
account  ?  Let  us  see  how  much  it  is.  There  are  in  the  fifteen  slave 
States,  346,048  slaveholders,  and  544,926,720  acres  of  land.  Now  the 
object  is  to  ascertain  how  many  acres  arc  owned  by  slaveholders,  and 
how  many  by  non-slaveholders.  Suppose  we  estimate  five  hundred 
acres  as  the  average  landed  property  of  each  slaveholder ;  will  that  be 
fair  ?  "We  think  it  will,  taking  into  consideration  the  fact  that  174,503 
of  the  whole  number  of  slaveholders  hold  less  than  five  slaves  each — 
68,820  holding  only  one  each.  According  to  this  hypothesis,  the  slave 
holders  own  173,024,000  acres,  and  the  non-slaveholders  the  balance, 
with  the  exception  of  about  40,000,000  of  acres  which  belong  to  the 

General  Government.     The  case  may  be  stated  thus  : 

i 

Area  of  the  Slave  States  544,926,720  acres. 

( Acres  owned  by  slaveholders 173,024,000 

Estimates  <  Acres  owned  by  the  government 40,000,000=213,024,000 

(Acres  owned  by  non-slaveholders 331,902,720 

Now,  chevaliers  of  the  lash,  and  conservators  of  slavery,  the  total 
value  of  three  hundred  and  thirty- one  million  nine  hundred  and  two 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  twenty  acres,  at  twenty-two  dollars  and 
seventy-three  cents  per  acre,  is  seven  billion  Jive  hundred  and  forty -four 
million  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
twenty -five  dollars;  and  this  is  our  account  against  you  on  a  single 
score.  Considering  how  your  pernicious  institution  has  retarded 
the  development  of  our  commercial  and  manufacturing  interests,  how  it 
has  stifled  the  aspirations  of  inventive  genius;  and,  above  all,  how  it 
has  barred  from  us  the  heaven-born  sweets  of  literature  and  religion- 
concernments  too  sacred  to  be  estimated  in  a  pecunLTsy  point  of  view- 
might  we  not,  with  perfect  justice  and  propriety,  duplicate  the  amount, 
and  still  be  accounted  modest  in  our  demands  ?  Fully  advised,  however, 
of  your  indigent  circumstances,  we  feel  it  would  be  utterly  useless  to 
call  on  you  for  the  whole  amount  that  is  due  us ;  we  shall,  therefore,  in 
your  behalf,  make  another  draft  on  the  fund  of  non-slaveholding  gener 
osity,  and  let  the  account,  meagre  as  it  is,  stand  as  above.  Though  we 
bave  given  you  all  the  offices,  and  you  h^ve  given  us  none  of  tLe  beno- 


64:  HOW    SLAYEKY    CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 

fits  of  legislation;  though  we  have  fought  the  battles  of  the  South, 
while  you  were  either  lolling  in  your  piazzas,  or  in  active  fellowship 
with  the  enemy,  and  endeavoring  to  filch  from  us  our  birthright  of  free 
dom  ;  though  you  have  absorbed  the  wealth  of  our  communities  in  send 
ing  your  own  children  to  Northern  seminaries  and  colleges,  or  in 
employing  Yankee  teachers  to  officiate  exclusively  in  your  own  families, 
and  have  refused  to  us  the  limited  privilege  of  common  schools  ;  though 
you  have  scorned  to  patronize  our  mechanics  and  industrial  enterprises, 
and  have  passed  to  the  North  for  every  article  of  apparel,  utility,  and 
Adornment ;  and  though  you  have  maltreated,  outraged  and  defrauded  us 
fli  every  relation  of  life,  civil,  social,  and  political,  yet  we  are  willing  to 
forgive  and  forget  you,  if  you  will  but  do  us  justice  on  a  single  count. 
Of  you,  the  introducers,  aiders  and  abettors  of  slavery,  we  demand 
indemnification  for  the  damage  our  lands  have  sustained  on  account 
thereof;  the  amount  of  that  damage  is  $7,544,148,825 ;  and  now,  sirs, 
we  are  ready  to  receive  the  money,  and  if  it  is  perfectly  convenient  to 
you,  we  would  be  glad  to  have  you  pay  it  in  specie  !  It  will  not  avail 
you,  sirs,  to  parley  or  prevaricate.  We  must  have  a  settlement.  Our 
claim  is  just  and  overdue.  We  have  already  indulged  you  too  long. 
Your  reckless  extravagance  has  almost  ruined  us.  We  are  determined 
that  you  shall  no  longer  play  the  profligate,  and  fare  sumptuously  every 
day  at  our  expense.  How  do  you  propose  to  settle  ?  Do  you  offer  us 
your  negroes  in  part  payment?  We  do  not  want  your  negroes.  We  would 
not  have  all  of  them,  nor  any  number  of  them,  even  as  a  gift.  We  hold 
ourselves  above  the  disreputable  and  iniquitous  practices  of  buying, 
selling,  and  owning  slaves.  What  we  demand  is  damages  in  money,  or 
other  absolute  property,  as  an  equivalent  for  the  pecuniary  losses  we 
nave  suffered  at  your  hands.  You  value  your  negroes  at  sixteen  hun 
dred  millions  of  dollars,  and  propose  to  sell  them  to  us  for  that  sum  ;  we 
should  consider  ourselves  badly  cheated,  and  disgraced  for  all  time, 
here  and  hereafter,  if  we  were  to  take  them  off  your  hands  at  sixteen 
farthings !  We  tell  you  emphatically,  we  are  firmly  resolved  never  to 
degrade  ourselves  by  becoming  the  mercenary  purchasers  or  proprietors 
of  human  beings.  Except  for  the  purpose  of  liberating  them,  we  would 
not  give  a  handkerchief  or  a  tooth-pick  for  all  the  slaves  in  the  world. 
But,  in  order  to  show  how  ridiculously  absurd  are  the  howls  and  groans 
Trhich  you  invariably  setup  for  compensation,  whenever  we  speak  of  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  we  will  suppose  your  negroes  are  worth  all  you  ask  v 
for  them,  and  that  we  are  bound  to  secure  to  you  every  cent  of  the  sum 
before  they  can  become  free — in  which  case,  our  accounts  would  stand 
thus : 

Non-slaveholders'  account  against  Slaveholders $7,544,148,825 

Slaveholders'  account  against  Non-slaveholders 1,600,000,000 

Balance  due  Non-slaveholders .$5,944,148.825 


HOW   SLAVERY   CAN   BE   ABOLISHED.  65 

Now,  Sirs,  we  ask  you  in  all  seriousness,  Is  it  not  apparent  that  yon 
nave  filched  from  us  nearly  five  times  the  amount  of  the  assessed  value 
of  your  slaves  ?  Why,  then,  do  you  still  clamor  for  more  ?  Is  it  your 
purpose  to  make  the  game  perpetual  ?  Think  you  that  we  will  ever 
continue  to  bow  at  the  wave  of  your  wand,  that  we  will  bring  humanity 
into  everlasting  disgrace  by  licking  the  hand  that  smites  us,  and  that 
with  us  there  is  no  point  beyond  which  forbearance  ceases  to  be  a  vir 
tue  ?  Sirs,  if  these  be  your  thoughts,  you  are  laboring  under  a  most 
fatal  delusion.  You  can  goad  us  no  further ;  you  shall  oppress  us  no 
longer ;  heretofore,  earnestly  but  submissively,  we  have  asked  you  to 
redress  the  more  atrocious  outrages  which  you  have  perpetrated  against 
us;  but  what  has  been  the  invariable  fate  of  our  petitions?  "With 
scarcely  a  perusal,  with  a  degree  of  contempt  that  added  insult  to  injury, 
you  have  laid  them  on  the  table,  and  from  thence  they  have  been  swept 
into  the  furnace  of  oblivion.  Henceforth,  Sirs,  we  are  demandants,  not 
suppliants.  We  demand  our  rights,  nothing  more,  nothing  less.  It  is 
for  you  to  decide  whether  we  are  to  have  justice  peaceably  or  by  vio 
lence,  for  whatever  consequences  may  follow,  we  are  determined  to  have 
it  one  way  or  the  other. 

Slavery  has  polluted  and  impoverished  your  lands ;  freedom  will 
restore  them  to  their  virgin  purity,  and  add  from  twenty  to  thirty  dol 
lars  to  the  value  of  every  acre.  Correctly  speaking,  emancipation  will 
cost  you  nothing ;  the  moment  you  abolish  slavery,  that  very  moment 
will  the  putative  value  of  the  slave  become  actual  value  in  the  soil. 
Though  there  are  ten  millions  of  people  in  the  South,  and  though  you  tho 
slaveholders  are  only  three  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand  in  number, 
you  have  within  a  fraction  of  one-third  of  all  the  territory  belonging  to 
the  fifteen  slave  States.  You  have  a  landed  estate  of  173,024,000  acres, 
the  present  average  market  value  of  which  is  only  $5  34  per  acre ;  eman 
cipate  your  slaves  on  Wednesday  morning,  and  on  the  Thursday  follow 
ing  the  value  of  your  lands,  and  ours  too,  will  have  increased  to  an  aver 
age  of  at  least  $28  07  per  acre.  Let  us  see,  therefore,  even  in  this  one 
particular,  whether  the  abolition  of  slavery  will  not  be  a  real  pecuniary 
advantage  to  you.  The  present  total  market  value  of  all  your  landed  pro 
perty,  at  $5  34  per  acre,  is  only  $923,248,160.  With  the  beauty  and 
sunlight  of  freedom  beaming  on  the  same  estate,  it  would  be  worth,  at 
$28  07  per  acre,  $4,856,873,680!  The  former  sum,  deducted  from  the 
latter,  leaves  a  balance  of  $3,933,535,520,  and  to  the  full  extent  of  this 
amount  will  your  lands  be  increased  in  value  whenever  you  abolk-1:  sla 
very  ;  that  is,  provided  you  abolish  it  before  it  completely  "  dries  up  all 
the  organs  of  increase."  Here  is  a  more  manifest  and  distinct  staternen 
of  the  case : 


66  HOW    SLAVERY   CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 

Estimated  value  of  slaveholders'  lands  after  slavery  shall )    4)  Ql.r 

have  been  abolished \   **>85G, 

Present  value  of  slaveholders'  lands 923,243,160 

Probable  aggregate  enhancement  of  value $3,933,535,520 

Now,  Sirs,  this  last  sum  is  considerably  more  than  twice  as  great  as 
the  estimated  value  of  all  your  negroes  ;  and  those  of  you,  if  any  there 
be,  who  are  yet  heirs  to  sane  minds  and  generous  hearts,  must,  it  seems 
to  us,  admit  that  the  bright  prospect  which  freedom  presents  for  a  won 
derful  increase  in  the  value  of  real  estate,  ours  as  well  as  yours,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  thousand  other  kindred  considerations,  ought  to  be  quite  suf 
ficient  to  induce  all  the  Southern  States,  in  their  sovereign  capacities,  to 
abolish  slavery  at  the  earliest  practicable  period.  You  yourselves, 
instead  of  losing  anything  by  the  emancipation  of  your  negroes — even 
though  we  suppose  them  to  be  worth  every  dime  of  $1,600,000,000,  would, 
in  this  one  particular,  the  increased  value  of  land,  realize  a  net  profit  of 
over  twenty-three  hundred  million  of  dollars.  Here  are  the  exact  figures : 

Net  increment  of  value  which  itis  estimated  will  accrue  to) 

slaveholders'  lands  in  consequence  of  the  abolition  V  $3,933,535,520 
of  slavery ) 

Putative  value  of  the  slaves 1,600,000,000 


Slaveholders'  estimated  net  landed  profits  of  emancipation     $2,333,535,520 

"What,  is  the  import  of  these  figures?  They  are  full  of  meaning.  They 
proclaim  themselves  the  financial  intercessors  for  freedom,  and,  with  that 
open-hearted  liberality  which  is  so  characteristic  of  the  sacred  cause  in 
whose  behalf  they  plead,  they  propose  to  pay  you  upward  of  three 
thousand  nine  hundred  million  of  dollars  for  the  very  "property"  which 
you,  in  all  the  extravagance  of  your  unchastened  avarice,  could  not  find 
a  heart  to  price  at  more  than  one  thousand  six  hundred  million.  In 
other  words,  your  own  lands,  groaning  and  languishing  under  the  mon 
strous  burden  of  slavery,  announce  their  willingness  to  pay  you  all  you 
ask  for  the  negroes,  and  offer  you,  besides,  a  bonus  of  more  than  twenty- 
three  hundred  million  of  dollars,  if  you  will  but  convert  those  lando  into 
free  soil!  Our  ]ands,  also,  cry  aloud  to  be  spared  from  the  further  pollu 
tions  and  desolations  of  slavery;  and  now,  sirs,  we  want  to  know 
explicitly  whether,  or  not,  it  is  your  intention  to  heed  these  lamentations 
of  the  ground  ?  We,  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  have  many  very 
important  interests  at  stake — interests  which,  heretofore,  you  have  stead 
ily  despised  and  trampled  under  foot,  but  which,  henceforth,  we  shall 
foster  and  defend  in  utter  defiance  of  all  the  unhallowed  influences  which 
it  is  possible  for  you,  or  any  other  class  of  slaveholders  or  slavebreeders 
to  bring  against  us.  Not  the  least  among  these  interests  is  our  landed 
property,  which,  tc  command  a  decent  price,  only  needs  to  be  disencum 
bered  of  slavery. 


HOW   SLAVERY   CAN  BE  ABOLISHED.  67 

In  his  present  condition,  we  believe,  man  exercises  one  of  the  noblest 
virtues  with  which  heaven  has  endowed  him,  when  without  taking  any 
undue  advantage  of  his  fellow-men,  and  with  a  firm,  unwavering  purpose 
to  confine  his  expenditures  to  the  legitimate  pursuits  and  pleasures  of 
life,  he  covets  money  and  strives  to  accumulate  it.  Entertaining  this 
view,  and  having  no  disposition  to  make  an  improper  use  of  money,  we 
are  free  to  confess  that  we  have  a  greater  penchant  for  twenty-eight  dol 
lars  than  for  five  ;  for  ninety  than  for  fifteen  ;  for  a  thousand  than  for  one 
hundred.  South  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  we,  the  non-slaveholders, 
have  331,902,720  acres  of  land,  the  present  average  market  value  of 
which,  as  previously  stated,  is  only  $5  34  per  acre ;  by  abolishing  slavery 
we  expect  to  enhance  the  value  to  an  average  of  at  least  $28  07  per  acre, 
and  thus  realize  an  average  net  increase  of  wealth  of  more  than  seventy- 
five  hundred  million  of  dollars.  The  hope  of  realizing  smaller  sums  has 
frequently  induced  men  to  perpetrate  acts  of  injustice  ;  we  can  see  no 
reason  why  the  certainty  of  becoming  immensely  rich  in  real  estate,  or 
other  property,  should  make  us  falter  in  the  performance  of  a  sacred 
duty. 

As  illustrative  of  our  theme,  a  bit  of  personal  history  may  not  be  out 
of  place  in  this  connection.  Only  a  few  months  have  elapsed  since  we 
sold  to  an  elder  brother  an  interest  we  held  in  an  old  homestead  which 
was  willed  to  us  many  years  ago  by  our  deceased  father.  The  tract  of 
land,  containing  two  hundred  acres,  or  thereabouts,  is  situated  two  and 
a  half  miles  west  of  Mocksville,  the  capital  of  Davie  county,  North  Caro 
lina,  and  is  very  nearly  equally  divided  by  Bear  Creek,  a  small  tribu 
tary  of  the  South  Yadkin.  More  than  one-third  of  this  tract — on  which 
we  have  ploughed,and  hoed,  andharrowed,  many  along  summer  without 
ever  suffering  from  the  effects  of  coup  de  soleil — is  under  cultivation ; 
the  remaining  portion  is  a  well -timbered  forest,  in  which,  without  being 
very  particular,  we  counted,  while  hunting  through  it  not  long  since, 
sixty -three  different  kinds  of  indigenous  trees — to  say  nothing  of  either 
coppice,  shrubs  or  plants — among  which  the  hickory,  oak,  ash,  beech, 
birch,  and  black  walnut,  were  most  abundant.  No  turpentine  or  rosin, 
is  produced  in  our  part  of  the  State ;  but  there  are,  on  the  place  of  which 
we  speak,  several  species  of  the  genus  Pinus,  by  the  light  of  whose  flam 
mable  knots,  as  radiated  on  the  contents  of  some  half-dozen  old  books 
which,  by  hook  or  by  crook,  had  found  their  way  into  the  neighborhood, 
we  have  been  enabled  to  turn  the  long  winter  evenings  to  some  advantage, 
and  have  thus  partially  escaped  from  the  prison-grounds  of  those  loath 
some  dungeons  of  illiteracy  in  which  it  has  been  the  constant  policy  of 
the  oligarchy  to  keep  the  masses,  the  non-slaveholding  whites  and  the 
negroes,  forever  confined.  The  fertility  of  the  soil  may  be  inferred  from 
the  quality  and  variety  of  its  natural  productions ;  the  meadow  and  the 
bottom,  comprising,  perhaps,  an  era  of  forty  acres,  are  hardly  surpassed 


68  HOW   SLAVERY    CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 

by  the  best  lands  in  the  valley  of  the  Yadkin.  A  thorough  examination 
of  the  orchard  will  disclose  the  fact  that  considerable  attention  has  been 
paid  to  the  selection  of  fruits  ;  the  buildings  are  tolerable  ;  the  water  is 
good.  Altogether,  to  be  frank,  and  nothing  more,  it  is,  for  its  size,  one 
of  the  most  desirable  farms  in  the  country,  and  will,  at  any  time,  com 
mand  the  maximum  price  of  land  in  "Western  Carolina.  Our  brother, 
anxious  to  become  the  solo  proprietor,  readily  agreed  to  give  us  the 
highest  market  price,  which  we  shall  publish  by  and  bye.  While  read 
ing  the  Baltimore  Sun,  the  morning  after  we  had  made  the  sale,  our 
attention  was  allured  to  a  paragraph  headed  "Sales  of  Real  Estate," 
from  which,  among  other  significant  items,  we  learned  that  a  tract  of 
land  containing  exactly  two  hundred  acres,  and  occupying  a  portion  of 
one  of  the  rural  districts  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Pennsylvania,  near 
the  Maryland  line,  had  been  sold  the  week  before,  at  one  hundred  and 
five  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  acre.  Judging  from  the  succinct  account 
given  in  the  Sun,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that,  with  regard  to  fertility  of 
soil,  the  Pennsylvania  tract  always  has  been,  is  now,  and  perhaps  always 
will  be,  rather  inferior  to  the  one  under  special  consideration.  One  is 
of  the  same  size  as  the  other  ;  both  are  used  for  agricultural  purposes  ; 
in  all  probability  the  only  essential  difference  between  them  is  this :  one 
is  blessed  with  the  pure  air  of  freedom,  the  other  is  cursed  with  the 
malaria  of  slavery.  For  our  interest  in  the  old  homestead  we  received  a 
nominal  sum,  amounting  to  an  average  of  precisely  five  dollars  and  sixty 
cents  per  acre.  No  one  but  our  brother,  who  was  keen  for  the  purchase, 
would  have  given  us  quite  so  much. 

And  now,  pray  let  us  ask,  what  does  this  narrative  teach  ?  We  shall 
use  few  words  in  explanation ;  there  is  an  extensive  void,  but  it  can  be 
better  filled  with  reflection.  The  aggregate  value  of  the  one  tract  is 
$21,100  ;  that  of  the  other  is  only  $1,120 ;  the  difference  is  $19,980.  We 
contend,  therefore,  in  view  of  all  the  circumstances  detailed,  that  the  ad 
vocates  and  retainers  of  slavery,  have,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
defrauded  car  family  out  of  this  last-mentioned  sum.  In  like  manner, 
and  on  the  same  basis  of  deduction,  we  contend  that  almost  every  non- 
slaveholder,  who  either  is  or  has  been  the  owner  of  real  estate  in  the 
South,  would  in  a  court  of  strict  justice,  be  entitled  to  damages — the 
amount  in  all  cases  to  be  determined  with  reference  to  the  quality  of  the 
land  in  question.  "We  say  this,  because  in  violation  of  every  principle  of 
expediency,  justice,  and  humanity,  and  in  direct  opposition  to  our  solemn 
protests,  slavery  was  foisted  upon  us,  and  has  been  thus  far  perpetuated 
by  and  through  the  wily  intrigues  of  the  oligarchy,  and  by  them  alone  ; 
and  furthermore,  because  the  very  best  agricultural  lands  in  the  Northern 
States  being  worth  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
dollars  pej*  acre,  there  is  no  possible  reason,  except  slavery,  why  the 
more  fertile  and  congenial  soil  of  the  South  should  not  be  worth  at  least 


HOW    SLAVERY   CAN   BE  ABOLISHED.  69 

as  much.  If,  on  this  principle,  we  could  ascertain,  in  the  matter  of  real 
estate,  the  total  indebtedness  of  the  slaveholders  to  the  non-slaveholders, 
we  should  doubtless  find  the  sum  quite  equivalent  to  the  amount  esti 
mated  on  a  preceding  page — $7,544,148,825. 

"We  have  recently  conversed  with  two  gentlemen  who,  to  save  them 
selves  from  the  poverty  and  disgrace  of  slavery,  left  North  Carolina  six 
or  seven  years  ago,  and  who  are  now  residing  in  the  territory  of  Minne 
sota,  where  they  have  accumulated  handsome  fortunes.  One  of  them 
had  travelled  extensively  in  Kentucky,  Missouri,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
other  adjoining  States ;  and,  according  to  his  account,  and  we  know  him 
to  be  a  man  of  veracity,  it  is  almost  impossible  for  persons  at  a  distance, 
to  form  a  proper  conception  of  the  magnitude  of  the  difference  between 
the  current  yalue  of  lands  in  the  Free  and  the  Slave  States  of  the  West. 
On  one  occasion,  embarking  at  "Wheeling,  he  sailed  down  the  Ohio; 
Virginia  and  Kentucky  on  the  one  side,  Ohio  and  Indiana  on  the  other. 
He  stopped  at  several  places  along  the  river,  first  on  the  right  bank, 
then  on  the  left,  and  so  on,  until  he  arrived  at  Evansville ;  continuing 
his  trip,  he  sailed  down  to  Cairo,  thence  up  the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Des  Moines;  having  tarried  at  different  points  along  the  route 
sometimes  in  Missouri,  sometimes  in  Illinois.  Wherever  he  landed  OE 
free  soil,  he  found  it  from  one  to  two  hundred  per  cent,  more  valuable 
than  the  slave  soil  on  the  opposite  bank.  If,  for  instance,  the  maximun: 
price  of  land  was  eight  dollars  in  Kentucky,  the  minimum  price  was 
sixteen  in  Ohio ;  if  it  was  seven  dollars  in  Missouri,  it  was  fourteen  io 
Illinois.  Furthermore,  he  assured  us,  that,  so  far  as  he  could  learn,  two 
years  ago,  when  he  travelled  through  the  States  of  which  we  speak,  the 
range  of  prices  of  agricultural  lands,  in  Kentucky,  was  from  three  to 
eight  dollars  per  acre  ;  in  Ohio,  from  sixteen  to  forty ;  in  Missouri,  from 
two  to  seven ;  in  Illinois,  from  fourteen  to  thirty ;  in  Arkansas,  from 
one  to  four ;  in  Iowa,  from  six  to  fifteen. 

In  all  the  old  slave  States,  as  is  well  known,  there  are  vast  bodies  of 
land  that  can  be  bought  for  the  merest  trifle.  We  know  an  enterprising 
capitalist  in  Philadelphia,  who  owns  in  his  individual  name,  in  the  State 
of  Virginia,  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  acres,  for  which  he  paid 
only  thirty-seven  and  a  half  cents  per  acre !  Some  years  ago,  in  certain 
parts  of  North  Carolina,  several  large  tracts  were  purchased  at  the  rate 
of  twenty-five  cents  per  acre  ? 

Hiram  Berdan,  the  distinguished  inventor,  who  has  frequently  seen 
freedom  and  slavery  side  by  side,  and  who  is,  therefore,  well  qualified  to 
form  an  opinion  of  their  relative  influence  upon  society,  says : 

uMany  comparisons  might  be  drawn  between  the  free  and  the  slave  States. 
either  of  which  should  be  sufficient  to  satisfy  any  man  that  slavery  is  not  only  ruin 
ous  to  free  labor  and  enterprise,  but  injurious  to  morals,  and  blighting  to  the  soi* 
where  it  exists.  The  comparison  between  the  States  of  Michigan  and  Arkansas, 
whw-h  were  admitted  into  the  Union  at  the  same  time,  will  t'airU'  ii  luxate  tho 


70  HOW    SLAVERY    <3AN   BE   ABOLISHED. 

difference  and  value  of  free  and  slave  labor,  as  well  as  the  difference  of  moral  and 
intellectual  progress  in  a  free  and  in  a  slave  State. 

"  In  1836,  those  young  Stars  were  admitted  into  the  constellation  of  the  Union. 
Michigan,  with  one-half  the  extent  of  territory  of  Arkansas,  challenged  her  sister 
State  for  a  twenty  years'  race,  and  named  as  her  rider,  '  Neither  slavery,  nor  in 
voluntary  servitude,  unless  for  the  punishment  of  crime,  shall  ever  be  tolerated  in 
this  State.'  Arkansas  accepted  the  challenge,  and  named  as  her  rider,  '  The 
General  Assembly  shall  have  no  power  to  pass  laws  for  the  emancipation  of  slaves 
without  the  consent  of  the  owners.'  Thus  mounted,  these  two  States,  the  one  free 
and  the  other  slave,  started  together  twenty  years  ago,  and  now,  having  arrived  at 
the  end  of  the  proposed  race,  let  us  review  and  mark  the  progress  of  each. 
Michigan  comes  out  in  1856  with  three  times  the  population  of  slave  Arkansas,  with 
five  times  the  assessed  value  of  farms,  farming  implements  and  machinery,  and 
with  eight  times  the  number  of  public  schools." 

In  the  foregoing  part  of  our  work,  we  have  drawn  comparisons  be 
tween  the  old  free  States  and  the  old  slave  States,  and  between  the  new 
free  States  and  the  new  slave  States ;  had  we  sufficient  tims  and  space, 
we  might  with  the  most  significant  results,  change  this  method  of  com 
parison,  by  contrasting  the  new  free  States  with  the  old  slave  States. 
Can  the  slavery-extensionists  compare  Ohio  with  Virginia,  Illinois  with 
Georgia,  or  Indiana  with  South  Carolina,  without  experiencing  the  agony 
of  inexpressible  shame?  If  they  can,  then  indeed  has  slavery  debased 
them  to  a  lower  deep  than  we  care  to  contemplate. 

We  shall  now  introduce  two  tables  of  valuable  and  interesting 
statistics,  to  which  philosophic  and  discriminating  readers  will  doubt 
less  have  frequent  occasions  to  refer.  Table  11  will  show  the  area 
of  the  several  States,  in  square  miles  and  in  acres,  and  the  number 
of  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile  in  each  State ;  also  the  grand  total,  or 
the  average,  of  every  statistical  column ;  table  12  will  exhibit  the  total 
number  of  inhabitants  residing  in  each  State,  according  to  the  census  of 
1850,  the  number  of  whites,  the  number  of  free  colored,  and  the  num 
ber  of  slaves.  The  recapitulations  of  these  tables  will  be  followed  by  a 
complete  list  of  the  number  of  slaveholders  in  the  United  States,  show 
ing  the  exact  number  in  each  Southern  State,  and  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  Most  warmly  do  we  commend  all  these  statistics  to  the 
studious  attention  of  the  reader.  Their  language  is  more  eloquent  than 
any  possible  combination  of  Roman  vowels  and  consonants.  We  have 
spared  no  pains  in  arranging  them  so  as  to  express  at  a  single  glance  the 
great  truths  of  which  they  are  composed;  and  we  doubt  not  that  the 
plan  we  have  adopted  will  meet  with  general  approbation.  Numerically 
considered,  it  will  be  perceived  that  the  slaveholders  are,  in  reality,  a 
very  insignificant  class.  Of  them,  however  we  shall  have  more  to  say 
hereafter. 


HOW   6LAYERY   CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 


71 


11. 


AREA  OF  THE  FREE  AND  OF  THE  SLATE  STATES. 


AREA  OF  THE  FREE  STATES. 

AREA  OF  THE  SLAVE  STATES. 

States. 

Square 
Miles. 

Acres. 

Inhabitants 
to  sq.  mile. 

States. 

Square 
Miles. 

Acres. 

Inhabitant! 
to  sq.  mile. 

California 

155,980 

99,827,200 

.59 

Alabama 

50,722 

32,027,490 

15.21 

Conn  

4,674 

2,991,360 

79.33 

Arkansas 

52,198 

83,406,720 

4.02 

Illinois... 

55,405 

85,359,200 

15.37 

Delaware 

2,120 

1,356,800 

43.13 

Indiana.  . 

83,809 

21,637.760 

29.24 

Florida.. 

59,268 

37,931,520 

1.48 

Icwa  

50,914 

32,584,960 

3.78 

Georgia.. 

58,000 

37,120,000 

15.62 

Maine.  .  .  . 

31,766 

20,330,240 

18.36 

Kentucky 

37,680 

24,115,200 

26.07 

Mass  

7,800 

4,992,000 

127.50 

Louisiana 

41,255 

26,403,200 

12.55 

Michigan  . 

56,243 

85,995,520 

7.07 

Maryland 

11,124 

7,119,360 

52.41 

N.  Hamp. 

9,2SO 

5,939,200 

34.26 

Miss  

47,156 

30,179,8.40 

12.86 

N.  Jersey 
New  York 

8,320 
47,000 

5.324,800 
80,080,000 

58.84 
65.90 

Missouri. 
N.  C  

67,380 
50,704 

43,123,200 
32,450,560 

10.12 
17.14 

Ohio  

89,904 

26,576,960 

49.55 

s.  c  

29,385 

18,805,400 

22.75 

Penn  

46,000 

29,440,000 

50.26 

Tenn.  .  .  . 

45,600 

.29,184,000 

21.  99 

Rhode  Is. 

1,806 

835,840 

112.97 

Texas..  . 

237,504 

152,002,560 

.89 

Vermont. 

10,212 

6,535,680 

30.76 

Virginia. 

61,352 

39,165,280 

23.17 

Wisconsin 

53,924 

84,511,360 

5.66 

612,597 

392,062,080 

21.91 

851,443 

544,926,720 

11.29 

12. 


POPULATION   OF  THE  FREE  AND   OF   THE  SLAVE  STATES—  1S50. 


POPULATION  OF  THE  FREE  STATES— 

POPULATION  OF  THE  SLAVE  STATES 

1850. 

1850. 

States. 

Whites. 

Free 
Colored. 

Total. 

States. 

Whites. 

Free 
Colored. 

Slaves. 

T 

California 

91,635 

962 

92,597 

Alabama 

426,514 

2,265 

342,844 

Conn  

363,099 

7,693 

870,792 

Arkansas 

162,189 

608 

47,100 

2 

Illinois... 

846,034 

5,436 

851,470 

Delaware 

71,169 

18,073 

2,290 

Indiana.. 

977,154 

11,262 

988,416 

Florida  . 

47,203 

932 

39,310 

Iowa  

191,881 

833 

192,214 

Georgia. 

521,572 

2,931 

881,622 

9 

Maine... 

581,813 

1,356 

583,169 

Kentucky 

761,413 

10,011 

210,981 

9 

Mass  

985,450 

9,064 

994,514 

Louisiana 

255,491 

17,462 

244.809 

6 

Michigan. 

895,071 

2,583 

897,654 

Maryland 

417,943 

74,723 

90,368 

5 

N.  Hamp. 

817,456 

520 

817,976 

Miss  

295,718 

930 

309.878 

b 

N.  Jersey 

465,509 

23,810 

489,555 

Missouri. 

592,004 

2,618 

87,422 

6 

New  York 

8,048,325 

49,069 

3,097,394 

N.  C.  .  . 

553,028 

27,463 

288,548 

8 

Ohio  

1,955,050 

25,279 

1,980,329 

S.  C.    ... 

274,563 

8,960 

884,984 

b 

Penn  

2,258,160 

53,626 

2,311,786 

Tenn.  ..  . 

756,836 

6,422 

239,459 

1,1 

Rhode  Is. 

143,875 

3,670 

147,545 

Texas... 

154,034 

397 

58,161 

'2 

Vermont.. 

313,402 

718 

314,120 

Virginia  . 

894,800 

54,333 

472,5:28 

M 

Wisconsin 

304,756 

535 

805,391 

18,233,670 

196,116 

18,434,922 

6,184,477 

228,138 

8,200,364 

!>,l 

Total. 


209,897 
91,532 
87,44,1 
906,185 
982,405 
517,762 


60G,82S 

682,044 


668,507 
1,003,717 

212,592 
1,421,661 


9,612,979 


HOW    SLAVERY    CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 


RECAPITULATION — AEEA. 

Square  Miles.  Acres. 

Area  of  the  Slave  States 851,448  544,926,720 

Area  of  the  Free  States 612,597 392,062,082 


Balances  in  favor  of  Slave  States, 238,851  152,8G4,G38 


RECAPITULATION — POPULATION — 1850. 

Whites.  Total. 

Population  of  the  Free  States 13,233,670 13.434.922 

Population  of  the  Slave  States 6,184,477 9,612,976 

Balances  in  favor  of  the  Free  States,  ....     7,049,193 3,821,946 


FREE  COLOKED  AND  SLAVE — 1850. 

Free  Negroes  in  the  Slave  States 228,138 

Free  Negroes  in  the  Free  States 196,116 

Excess  of  Free  Negroes  in  the  Slave  States 32,022 

Slaves  in  the  Slave  States 3,200,364 

Free  Negroes  in  the  Slave  States 228,138 

Aggregate  Negro  Population  of  the  Slave  States  in  1850 3,42S,502 


THE    TERRITORIES    AND    THE    DISTRICT    OF   COLUMBIA. 

• 

Area  in  Square  Miles.  Population 

Indian     Territory 71,127 


Kansas 

Minnesota 

Nebraska 

N.  Mexico 

Oregon 

Utah 

Washington 


114,798 

166.025   6,077 

, 335',882 

207,007 61,547 

185,030  13,294 

269,170  11,:J80 


123,022 


Columbia,  Dist.  of 60  *51,687 

Aggregate  of  Area  and  Population 1,472,121  143,985 

NUMBER   OF    SLAVEHOLDERS   IN    THE    UNITED    STATES — 1850. 

Alabama , 29,295 

Arkansas 5,999 

Columbia,  District  of 1,477 

Delaware 809 

Florida 3,52-0 

Georgia 38.456 

Kentucky 38,385 

Louisiana 20,670 

Carried  forward, 138,611 

*  Of  the  51,687  inhabitants  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  in  1850, 10,057  were  Free  Colored, 
and  3,637  were  slaves. 


UOW   SLAVERY   CAN   BE   ABCLISHED.  73 

Brought  forward 138,611 

Maryland 16,040 

Mississippi 23,116 

Missouri 19,185 

North  Carolina 28,303 

South  Carolina 25,596 

Tennessee •  •  •  33,864 

Texas 7,747 

Virginia 55,OG3 

Total  Number  of  Slaveholders  in  the  United  States 347,525 


CLASSIFICATION   OF   BLA.VEIIOLDEKS — 1850. 

Holders  of  1  slave                  68,820 

Holders  of  1  and  under        5 105,683 

Holders  of  5  and  under      10 80,765 

Holders  of  10  and  under      20 54,595 

Holders  of  20  and  under      60 29,733 

Holders  of  50  and  under    100 6,196 

Holders  of  100  and  under    200 1,479 

Solders  of  200  and  under    300 187 

Holders  of  300  and  under    500 56 

Holders  of  500  and  under  1,000 

Holders  of  1,000  and  over     '       2 

Aggregate  Number  of  Slaveholders  in  the  United  States 347,525 

It  thus  appears  that  there  are  in  the  United  States,  three  hundred  and 
forty-seven  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty-five  slaveholders.  But 
this  appearance  is  deceptive.  The  actual  number  is  certainly  less  than 
two  hundred  thousand.  Professor  De  Bow,  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Census,  informs  us  that  "the  number  includes  slave-hirers,"  and  further 
more,  that  "  where  the  party  owns  slaves  in  different  counties,  or  indif 
ferent  States,  he  will  be  entered  more  than  once."  Now  every  South 
erner,  who  has  any  practical  knowledge  of  affairs,  must  know,  and  does 
know,  that  every  New  Year's  day,  like  almost  every  other  day,  is  dese 
crated  in  the  South,  by  publicly  hiring  out  slaves  to  large  numbers  of 
non-slaveholders.  The  slave-owners,  who  are  the  exclusive  manufac 
turers  of  public  sentiment,  have  popularized  the  dictum  that  white  ser 
vants  are  unfashionable  ;  and  there  are,  we  are  sorry  to  say,  nearly  one 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  non-slaveholding  sycophants,  who  have  sub 
scribed  to  this  false  philosophy,  and  who  are  giving  constant  encourage 
ment  to  the  infamous  practices  of  slaveholding  and  slave-breeding,  by 
hiring  at  least  one  slave  every  year. 

With  the  statistics  at  our  command,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  ascer 
tain  the  exact  numbers  of  slaveholders  and  nori-slaveholding  slave-hirers 
in  the  slave  States  ;  but  we  have  data  which  will  enable  us  to  approach 
very  near  to  the  facts.  The  town  from  which  we  hail,  Salisbury,  the 
capital  of  Bo  wan  county,  North  Carolina,  contains  about  twenty-three 
hundred  inhabitants,  including  three  hundred  and  seventy-two  slaves, 


£4  HOW   SLAVERY   CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

fifty-one  slaveholders,  and  forty-three  non-slaveholding  slave-hirers 
Taking  it  for  granted  that  this  town  furnishes  a  fair  relative  proportion 
of  all  the  slaveholding,  and  non-slaveholding  slave-hirers  in  the  slave 
States,  the  whole  number  of  the  former,  including  those  who  have  been 
"  entered  more  than  once,"  is  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  thousand 
five  hundred  and  fifty-one;  of  the  latter,  one  hundred  and  fifty- eight 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventy-four;  and,  now,  estimating  that 
there  are  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  other  grain-growing  States,  an 
aggregate  of  two  thousand  slave-owners,  who  have  cotton  plantations 
stocked  with  negroes  in.  the  far  South,  and  who  have  been  "  entered 
more  than  once,"  we  :/md,  as  the  result  of  our  calculations,  that  the 
total  number  of  actual  slaveholders  in  the  Union,  is  precisely  one  hun 
dred  and  eighty-six  thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty-one — as  follows  : 

Number  of  actual  slaveholders  in  the  United  States 180,551 

Number  "  entered  more  than  once  " 2,000 

Number  of  non-slaveholding  slave-hirers 158. S74 


Aggregate  number,  according  to  Be  Bow 347,5^5 

The  greater  number  of  non-slaveholding  slave-hirers,  are  a  kind  of 
third-rate  aristocrats — persons  who  formely  owned  slaves,  but  whom 
slavery,  as  is  its  custom,  has  dragged  down  to  poverty,  leaving  them,  in 
their  false  and  shiftless  pride,  to  eke  out  a  miserable  existence  ov^r  the 
hapless  chattels  personal  of  other  men. 

Thus  far  in  giving  expression  to  our  sincere  and  settled  opinions,  we 
have  endeavored  to  show,  in  the  first  place,  that  slavery  is  a  great  moral, 
social,  civil,  and  political  evil — a  dire  enemy  to  true  wealth  and  national 
greatness,  and  an  atrocious  crime  against  both  God  and  man ;  and,  in 
the  second  place,  that  it  is  a  paramount  duty  which  we  owe  to  heaven, 
to  the  earth,  to  America,  to  humanity,  to  our  posterity,  to  our  con 
sciences,  and  to  our  pockets,  to  adopt  effectual  and  judicious  measures 
for  its  immediate  suppression.  The  questions  now  arise,  How  can  tho 
evil  be  averted  ?  What  are  the  most  prudent  and  practicable  means  that 
can  be  devised  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  ?  In  the  solution  of  these 
problems  it  becomes  necessary  to  deal  with  a  multiplicity  of  stubborn 
realities.  And  yet,  we  can  see  no  reason  why  North  Carolina,  in  her 
sovereign  capacity,  may  not  with  equal  ease  and  success,,  do  what 
forty -five  other  States  of  the  world  have  done  within  the  last  forty-five 
years.  Nor  do  we  believe  any  good  reason  exists  why  Virginia  should 
not  perform  as  great  a  deed  in  18G9  as  did  New  York  in  1799.  Mas 
sachusetts  abolished  slavery  in  1780  ;  would  it  not  be  a  masterly  stroke 
of  policy  in  Tennessee,  and  every  other  slave  State,  to  abolish  it  in  or 
before  1S70  ? 

To  the  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the  South,  is  a  deeply- wronged 


HOW    SLAYEKY   CAN    BE    ABOLISHED.  75 

and  vitally  distinct  political  party,  we  must  look  for  that  change  of  law, 
or  reorganization  of  society,  which,  at  an  early  dav,  we  hope,  is  to  result 
in  the  substitution  of  liberty  for  slavery ;  and,  under  all  the  circum 
stances,  it  now  becomes  their  duty  to  mark  out  an  independent  course  for 
themselves,  and  to  utterly  contemn  and  ignore  the  many  base  instru 
ments  of  power,  animate  and  inanimate,  which  have  been  so  freely  and 
so  effectually  used  for  their  enslavement.  Steering  entirely  clear  of  the 
oligarchy,  now  is  the  time  for  the  non-slaveholders  to  assert  their  rights 
and  liberties;  never  before  was  there  such  an  appropriate  period  to 
strike  for  Freedom  in  the  South. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  better  sense,  the  purer  patriotism,  and  the 
more  practical  justice  of  the  non-slaveholders,  the  Middle  States  and 
New  England  would  still  be  groaning  and  grovelling  under  the  ponderous 
burden  of  slavery;  New  York  would  never  have  risen  above  the  dishon 
orable  level  of  Virginia ;  Pennsylvania,  trampled  beneath  the  iron-heel 
of  the  black  code,  would  have  remained  the  unprogressive  parallel  of 
Georgia ;  Massachusetts  would  have  continued  till  the  present  time,  and 
Heaven  only  knows  how  much  longer,  the  contemptible  coequal  of  South 
Carolina. 

Succeeded  by  the  happiest  moral  effects  and  the  grandest  physical 
results,  we  have  seen  slavery  crushed  beneath  the  wisdom  of  the  non- 
slaveholding  statesmen  of  the  North ;  followed  by  corresponding  influ 
ences  and  achievements,  many  of  us  who  have  not  yet  passed  the  meri 
dian  of  life,  are  destined  to  see  it  equally  crushed  beneath  the  wisdom 
of  the  non-slaveholding  statesmen  of  the  South.  With  righteous  indig 
nation,  we  enter  our  protest  against  the  base  yet  baseless  admission  that 
Louisiana  and  Texas  are  incapable  of  producing  as  great  statesmen  as 
Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut.  What  has  been  done  for  New  Jersey  by 
the  statesmen  of  New  Jersey,  can  be  done  for  Kentucky  by  the  states 
men  of  Kentucky ;  the  wisdom  of  the  former  State  has  abolished  slavery  ; 
as  sure  as  the  earth  revolves  on  its  axis,  the  wisdom  of  the  latter  will 
not  do  less. 

That  our  plan  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  is  the  best  that  can  be 
devised,  we  have  not  the  vanity  to  contend ;  but  that  it  is  a  good  one, 
and  will  do  to  act  upon  until  a  better  shall  have  been  suggested,  we  do 
firmly  and  conscientiously  believe.  Though  but  little  skilled  in  the  deli 
cate  art  of  surgery,  we  have  pretty  thoroughly  probed  slavery,  the 
frightful  tumor  on  the  body  politic,  and  have,  we  think,  ascertained  the 
precise  remedies  requisite  for  a  speedy  and  perfect  cure.  Possibly  the 
less  ardent  friends  of  freedom  may  object  to  our  prescription,  on  the 
ground  that  some  of  its  ingredients  are  too  griping,  and  that  it  will  cost 
the  patient  a  deal  of  most  excruciating  pain.  But  let  them  remember 
that  the  patient  is  exceedingly  refractory,  that  the  case  is  a  desperate 
one,  and  that  drastic  remedies  are  indispensably  necessary.  When  thej 


76  now  SLAVES Y  CAN  BE  ABOLISHED. 

shall  have  discovered  milder  yet  equally  efficacious  ones,  it  will  be  time 
enough  to  discontinue  the  use  of  ours — then  no  one  will  be  readier  than 
we  to  discard  the  infallible  strong  recipe  for  the  infallible  mild.  Not  at 
the  persecution  of  a  few  thousand  slaveholders,  but  at  the  restitution  of 
natural  rights  and  prerogatives  to  several  million  of  non-slaveholders, 
do  wre  aim. 

Inscribed  on  the  banner,  which  we  herewith  unfurl  to  the  world,  with 
the  full  and  fixed  determination  to  stand  by  it  or  di«  by  it,  unless  one  of 
more  virtuous  efficacy  shall  be  presented,  are  the  mottoes  which,  in  sub 
stance,  embody  the  principles,  as  we  conceive,  that  should  govern  us  in  our 
patriotic  warfare  against  the  most  subtle  and  insidious  foe  that  ever  men 
aced  the  inalienable  rights  and  liberties  and  dearest  interests  of  America  : 
1st.  Thorough  Organization  and  Independent  Political  Action  on  tho 

part  of  the  Non-Slaveholding  Whites  of  the  South. 
2nd.    Ineligibility  of  Pro-slavery  Slaveholders — Never  another  vote  to 
any  one  who  advocates  the  Retention  and  Perpetuation  of  Human 
Slavery. 
3rd.    No  Cooperation  with  Pro-slavery  Politicians — No  Fellowship  with 

them  in  Religion — No  Affiliation  with  them  in  Society. 
4th.  No  Patronage  to  Pro-slavery  Merchants — No  Guestship  in  Slave- 
waiting  Hotels — No  Fees  to  Pro-slavery  Lawyers — No  Employment  of 
Pro-slavery  Physicians — No  audience  to  Pro-slavery  Parsons. 
5th.  No  more  Hiring  of  Slaves  by  Non-Slaveholders. 
6th.  Abrupt  Discontinuance  of  Subscription  to  Pro-slavery  Newspapers. 
7th.  The  Greatest  Possible  Encouragement  to  Free  White  Labor. 

This,  then,  is  the  outline  of  our  scheme  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  m 
the  Southern  States.  Let  it  be  acted  upon  with  due  promptitude,  and, 
as  certain  as  truth  is  mightier  than  error,  fifteen  years  will  not  elapse 
before  every  foot  of  territory,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware  to  th<> 
emboguing  of  the  Rio  Grande,  will  glitter  with  the  jewels  of  freedom. 
Some  time  during  this  year,  next,  or  the  year  following,  let  there  be  a 
general  convention  of  non-slaveholders  from  every  slave  State  in  tho 
Union,  to  deliberate  on  the  momentous  issues  now  pending.  First,  let 
them  adopt  measures  for  holding  in  restraint  the  mischievous  excesses 
of  the  oligarchy ;  secondly,  in  order  to  cast  off  the  thralldom  which  tho 
despotic  slave-power  has  fastened  upon  them,  and,  as  the  first  step  neces 
sary  to  be  taken  to  regain  the  inalienable  rights  and  liberties  with  which 
they  were  invested  by  nature,  but  of  which  they  have  been  divested  by 
the  Vandalic  dealers  in  human  flesh,  let  them  devise  ways  and  means  for 
the  complete  annihilation  of  slavery ;  thirdly,  let  them  put  forth  an 
equitable  and  comprehensive  platform,  fully  defining  their  position,  and 
inviting  the  active  sympathy  and  cooperation  of  the  millions  of  down 
trodden  non-slaveholders  throughout  the  Southern  and  Southwestern 
States.  Let  all  these  things  be  done,  not  too  hastily,  but  with  calmness 


SLAVERY   CAN  BE  ABOLISHED.  77 

Deliberation,  prudence  and  circumspection ;  if  need  be,  let  the  delegates 
to  the  convention  continue  in  session  one  or  two  weeks ;  only  let  their 
labors  be  wisely  and  thoroughly  performed ;  let  them,  on  Wednesday 
morning,  present  to  the  poor  whites  of  the  South,  a  well-digested  scheme 
for  the  reclamation  of  their  ancient  rights  and  prerogatives,  and,  on  the 
Thursday  following,  slavery  in  the  United  States  will  be  worth  abso 
lutely  less  than  nothing;  for  then,  besides  being  so  despicable  and  pre 
carious  that  nobody  will  want  it,  it  will  be  a  lasting  reproach  to  those 
in  whose  hands  it  is  lodged. 

Were  it  not  that  other  phases  of  the  subject  admonish  us  to  be  eco 
nomical  of  space,  we  could  suggest  more  than  a  dozen  different  plans, 
either  of  which,  if  scrupulously  carried  out,  would  lead  to  a  wholesome, 
speedy,  and  perfect  termination  of  slavery.  Under  all  the  circumstances, 
however,  it  might  be  difficult  for  us — perhaps  it  would  not  be  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  for  anybody  else — to  suggest  a  better  plan  than  the 
one  above.  Let  it,  or  one  embodying  its  principal  features,  be  adopted 
forthwith,  and  the  last  wail  of  slavery  will  soon  be  heard,  growing 
fainter  and  fainter,  till  it  dies  utterly  away,  to  be  succeeded  by  the  jubi 
lant  shouts  of  emancipated  millions. 

At  the  very  moment  we  write,  as  has  been  the  case  ever  since  the 
United  States  have  had  a  distinct  national  existence,  and  as  will  always 
continue  to  be  the  case,  unless  right  triumphs  over  wrong,  all  the  civil, 
political,  and  other  offices,  within  the  gift  of  the  South,  are  filled  with 
negro-nursed  incumbents  from  the  ranks  of  that  artful  band  of  misan 
thropes — three  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand  in  number — who,  for 
the  most  part,  obtain  their  living  by  breeding,  buying  and  selling  slaves. 
The  magistrates  in  the  villages,  the  constables  in  the  districts,  the  com 
missioners  of  the  towns,  the  mayors  of  the  cities,  the  sheriffs  of  the 
counties,  the  judges  of  the  various  courts,  the  members  of  the  legis 
latures,  the  governors  of  the  States,  the  representatives  and  senators  in 
Congress — are  all  slaveholders.  Nor  does  the  catalogue  of  their  usurp 
ations  end  here.  By  means  of  much  barefaced  arrogance  and  corrup 
tion,  they  have  obtained  control  of  the  General  Government,  and  all  the 
consuls,  ambassadors,  envoys  extraordinary,  and  ministers  plenipoten 
tiary,  who  are  chosen  from  the  South,  and  commissioned  to  foreigr 
countries,  are  selected  with  especial  reference  to  the  purity  of  their  pro 
slavery  antecedents.  If  credentials  have  ever  been  issued  to  a  singli 
non-slaveholder  of  the  South,  we  are  ignorant  of  both  the  fact  and  th< 
hearsay  ;  indeed,  it  would  be  very  strange  if  this  much  abused  class  oi 
persons  were  permitted  to  hold  important  offices  abroad,  when  they  art 
not  allowed  to  hold  unimportant  ones  at  home. 

And,  then,  there  is  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States,  which  office 
has  been  held  forty '-eight  years  by  slaveholders  from  the  South,  and  only 
twenty  years  by  non-slaveholders  from  the  North.  Nor  is  this  the  full  ro 


78  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 

cord  of  oligarchies*  obtrusion.  On  an  average,  the  offices  of  Secretary  of 
State,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  Secretary  of  War,  Postmaster- General  and  Attorney-General,  have 
been  under  the  control  of  slave-drivers  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  time.  The 
Chief  Justices  and  the  Associate  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  the  Presidents  pro  tern,  of  the  Senate,  and  the  Speakers  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  have,  in  a  large  majority  of  instances,  been 
slave-breeders  from  the  Southern  side  of  the  Potomac.  Five  slave- 
holding  Presidents  have  been  reflected  to  the  chief  magistracy  of  the 
Republic,  while  no  non-slaveholder  has  ever  held  the  office  more  than  a 
single  term.  Thus  we  see  plainly  that  even  the  non-slaveholders  of  the 
North,  to  whose  freedom,  energy,  enterprise,  intelligence,  wealth,  popu 
lation,  power,  progress,  and  prosperity,  our  country  is  almost  exclusively 
indebted  for  its  high  position  among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  have  been 
arrogantly  denied  a  due  participation  in  the  honors  of  federal  office. 
When  "the  sum  of  all  villainies"  shall  have  ceased  to  exist,  then  the 
rights  of  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  North,  of  the  South,  of  the  East, 
and  of  the  West,  will  be  duly  recognized  and  respected ;  not  before. 

For  the  last  sixty-eight  years,  slaveholders  have  been  the  sole  and 
constant  representatives  of  the  South,  and  what  have  they  accom 
plished  ?  It  requires  but  little  time  and  few  words,  to  tell  the  story  of 
their  indiscreet  and  unhallowed  performances.  In  fact,  with  what  we 
have  already  said,  gestures  alone  would  suffice  to  answer  the  inquiry. 
We  can  make  neither  a  more  truthful  nor  emphatic  reply  than  to  point 
to  our  thinly  inhabited  States,  to  our  fields  despoiled  of  their  virgin 
soil,  to  the  despicable  price  of  lands,  to  our  unvisited  cities  and  towns, 
to  our  vacant  harbors  and  idle  water-power,  to  the  dreary  absence  ol 
shipping  and  manufactories,  to  our  unpensioned  soldiers  of  the  Kevolu- 
tion,  to  the  millions  of  living  monuments  of  ignorance,  to  the  squalid 
poverty  of  the  whites,  and  to  the  utter  wretchedness  of  the  blacks. 

Either  directly  or  indirectly,  are  pro-slavery  politicians,  who  have 
ostentatiously  set  up  pretensions  to  statesmanship,  responsible  for  every 
dishonorable  weakness  and  inequality  that  exists  between  the  North  and 
the  South.  Let  them  shirk  the  responsibility  if  they  can;  but  it  is 
morally  impossible  for  them  to  do  so.  We  know  how  ready  they  have 
always  been  to  cite  the  numerical  strength  of  the  North,  as  a  valid 
excuse  for  their  inability  to  procure  appropriations  from  the  General 
Government,  for  purposes  of  internal  improvement,  for  the  establish 
ment  of  lines  of  ocean  steamers  to  South  American  and  European  ports, 
and  for  the  accomplishment  of  other  objects.  Before  that  apology  ever 
escapes  from  their  lips  again,  let  them  remember  that  the  numeri 
cal  weakness  of  the  Soutli  is  wholly  attributable  to  their  own  imbecile 
statism.  Had  the  Southern  States,  in  accordance  with  the  principles 
er  inciated  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  abolished  slavery  at  the 


HOW    SLAVE  111    CAN   BE   ABOLISHED.  79 

time  the  Northern  States  abolished  it,  there  would  have  been, 
long  .since,  and  most  assuredly  at  this  moment,  a  larger,  wealthier,  wiser, 
and  more  powerful  population,  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  than 
.here  now  is  north  of  it.  This  fact  heing  so  well  established  that  no 
reasonable  man.  denies  if.,  it  is  evident  that  the  oligarchy  will  have  to 
devise  another  subterfuge  for  oven  temporary  relief. 

Until  shivery  and  slaveholders  cease  to  be  the  only  favored  objects  of 
legislation  in  the  South,  the  North  will  continue  to  maintain  the  ascen 
dency  in  every  important  particular.  "With  those  mischievous  objects 
out  of  the  way,  it  would  not  require  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  bring  her  up,  in  all  respects,  to  a 
glorious  equality  with  the  North  ;  nor  would  it  take  them  much  longer 
to  surpass  the  hitter,  which  is  the  most  vigorous  and  honorable  rival 
that  they  have  in  the  world.  Three-quarters  of  a  century  hence,  if 
slavery  is  abolished  within  the  next  ten  years,  as  it  ought  to  be,  the 
South  will,  we  believe,  be  as  much  greater  than  the  North,  as  the  North 
is  now  greater  than  the  South.  Three-quarters  of  a  century  hence,  if 
the  South  retains  slaveiy,  which  God  forbid !  she  will  be  to  the  North 
much  the  same  that  Poland  is  to  Russia,  that  Cuba  is  to  Spain,  or  that 
Ireland  is  to  England. 

"What  we  want  and  must  have,  as  the  only  sure  means  of  attaining  to 
a  position  worthy  of  Sovereign  States  in  this  eminently  progressive  and. 
utilitarian  age,  is  an  energetic,  intelligent,  enterprising,  virtuous,  and 
unshackled  population ;  an  untrammelled  press,  and  the  Freedom  of 
Speech.  For  ourselves,  as  white  people,  and  for  the  negroes  and  other 
persons  of  whatever  color  or  condition,  we  demand  all  the  rights,  inter 
ests  and  prerogative?,  that  are  guaranteed  to  corresponding  classes  of 
mankind  in  the  North,  in  England,  in  France,  in  Germany,  or  in  any 
other  civilized  and  enlightened  country.  Any  proposition  that  may  be 
offered  conceding  less  than  this  demand,  will  be  promptly  and  disdain 
fully  rejected. 

Speaking  of  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  George  M.  TTeston,  a 
zealous  co  laborer  in  the  cause  of  Freedom,  says  : 

1  '•  The  non-slaveholdiug  whites  of  the  South,  being  not  less  than  seven-tenths  of 
t~t  v/hole  number  of  whites,  would  seem  to  be  entitled  to  some  inquiry  into  their 
actual  condition  :  and  especially,  as  they  have  no  real  political  weight  or  Considera 
tion  in  the  country,  and  little  opportunity  to  speak  for  themselves.  I  have  been 
for  twenty  years  a  reader  of  Southern  newspapers,  and  a  reader  and  hearer  of  Con 
gressional  debates  ;  but,  hi  all  thr.t  time,  I  do  not  recollect  ever  to  have  seen  or 
heard  these  non-slayeholdiflg  whites  referred  to  by  Southern  l  gentlemen,'  as  con 
stituting  any  part  of  whnt  they  call  '  the  South.'  When  the  rights  of  the  South,  or 
its  wrongs,  or  its  policy,  or  its  interests,  or  its  institutions,  are  spoken  of,  reference 
Is  always  intended  to  the  rights,  wrongs,  policy,  interests,  and  institutions  of  the 
ihree  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand  slaveholders.  Nobody  gets  into  Congress 
*rom  the  South  but  by  their  direction;  nobody  speaks  at  Washington  for  any 
Southern  interest  except  theirs.  Yet  there  is,  at  the  South,  quite  another  interest 
than  theirs ;  embracing  from  two  to  three  times  as  many  white  people  ;  and.  as  wo 
shall  presently  see,  entitled  to  the  deepest  sympathy  ami  commiseration,  in  v.ew 


80  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN   BE    ABOLISHED. 

of  the  material,  intellectual,  and  moral  privations  to  which  it  has  been  subjected, 
the  degradation  to  which  it  has  already  been  reduced,  and  the  still  more  fearful 
degradation  with  which  it  is  threatened  by  the  inevitable  operation  of  existing 
causes  and  influences." 

The  following  extract,  from  a  paper  on  "Domestic  Manufactures  in 
the  South  and  West,"  published  by  M.  Tarvcr,  of  Missouri,  may  be 
appropriately  introduced  in  this  connection  : 

"The  non-slaveholders  possess,  generally,  but  very  small  means,  and  the  land 
which  they  possess  is  almost  universally  poor,  and  so  sterile  that  a  scanty  subsis 
tence  is  all  that  can  be  derived  from  its  cultivation  ;  and  the  more  fertile  soil,  being 
in  the  possession  of  the  slaveholders,  must  ever  remain  out  of  the  power  of  those 
who  have  none.  This  state  of  things  is  a  great  drawback,  and  bears  heavily  upon 
and  depresses  the  moral  energies  of  the  poorer  classes.  The  acquisition  of  a 
respectable  position  in  the  scale  of  wealth  appears  so  difficult,  that  they  decline 
the  hopeless  pursuit,  and  many  of  them  settle  down  into  habits  of  idleness,  and 
become  the  almost  passive  subjects  of  all  its  consequences.  And  I  lament  to  say 
that  I  have  observed, -of  late  years,  that  an  evident  deterioration  is  taking  place  in 
this  part  of  the  population,  the  younger  portion  of  it  being  less  educated,  less 
industrious,  and  in  every  point  of  view  less  respectable  than  their  ancestors/' 

Equally  worthy  of  attention  is  the  testimony  of  Gov.  Hammond,  of 
South  Carolina,  who  says  : 

"  According  to  the  best  calculation,  which,  in  the  absence  of  statistic  fads,  can 
be  made,  it  is  believed,  that  of  the  three  hundred  thousand  white  inhabitants  of 
South  Carolina,  there  are  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  whose  industry,  such  as  it  is, 
and  compensated  as  it  is,  is  not,  in  the  present  condition  of  things,  and  does  not 
promise  to  be  hereafter,  adequate  to  procure  them,  hoaestly,  such  a  support  as 
every  white  person  is,  and  feels  himself  entitled  to.  And  this,*  next  to  emigration, 
is,  perhaps,  the  heaviest  of  the  weights  that  press  upon  the  springs  of  pur  pro 
sperity.  Most  of  those  now  follow  agricultural  pursuits,  in  feeble,  jet  injurious 
competition  with  slave  labor.  Some,  perhaps,  not  more  from  inclination  than 
from  the  want  of  due  encouragement,  can  scarcely  be  said  to  work  at  all.  They 
obtain  a  precarious  subsistence,  by  occasional  jobs,  by  hunting,  by  fishing,  some 
times  by  plundering  fields  or  folds,  and  too  often  by  what  is,  in  its  effects,  far 
worse — trading  with  slaves,  and  seducing  them  to  plunder  for  their  benefit." 

Conjoined  with  the  sundry  plain,  straightforward  facts  which  have 
issued  from  our  own  pen,  these  extracts  show  conclusively  that  immediate 
and  independent  political  action  on  the  part  of  the  non-slaveholding 
whites  of  the  South,  is,  with  them,  a  matter,  not  only  of  positive  duty, 
but  also  of  the  utmost  importance.  As  yet,  it  is  in  their  power  to  rescuo 
the  South  from  the  gulf  of  shame  and  guilt,  into  which  slavery  has 
plunged  her ;  but  if  they  do  not  soon  arouse  themselves  from  their 
apathy,  this  power  will  be  wrenched  from  them,  and  then,  unable  to 
resist  the  strong  arm  of  the  oppressor,  they  will  be  completely  degraded 
to  a  social  and  political  level  witL  the  negroes,  whose  condition  of  servi 
tude  will,  in  the  meantime,  become  far  more  abject  and  forlorn  than  it 
is  now. 

In  addition  to  the  reasons  which  we  have  already  assigned  why  no 
elavocrat  should,  in  the  future,  be  elected  to  any  office  whatever,  tlicrt 
are  others  that  deserve  to  bo  carefully  considered.  Among  these,  to 
epcak  plainly,  may  be  mentioned  the  ill-breeding  and  the  ruffianism  oi 


HCW   SLAVERY    CAN   BE   ABOLISHED.  81 

slaveholding  officials.  Tedious,  indeed,  would  be  the  task  to  enumerate 
all  the  homicidea,  duels,  assaults  and  batteries,  and  other  crimes,  of 
•which  they  are  the  authors  in  the  course  of  a  single  year.  To  the 
general  reader  their  career  at  the  seat  of  government  is  well  known ; 
there,  on  frequent  occasions,  choking  with  rage  at  seeing  their  wretched 
sophistries  scattered  to  the  winds  by  the  sound,  logical  reasoning  of  the 
champions  of  Freedom,  they  have  overstepped  the  bounds  of  common 
decency,  vacated  the  chair  of  honorable  controversy,  and,  in  the  most 
brutal  and  cowardly  manner,  assailed  their  unarmed  opponents  with 
bludgeons,  bowie  knives  and  pistols.  Compared  with  some  of  their 
barbarisms  at  home,  however,  their  frenzied  onslaughts  at  the  national 
Capital  have  been  but  the  simplest  breaches  of  civil  deportment ;  and  it 
is  only  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  personalities  that  we  now  refrain 
from  divulging  a  few  instances  of  the  unparalleled  atrocities  which  they 
have  perpetrated  in  legislative  halls  south  of  the  Potomac.  Nor  is  it 
alone  in  the  national  and  State  legislatures  that  they  substitute  brute 
force  for  genteel  behavior  and  acuteness  of  intellect.  Neither  court 
houses  nor  public  streets,  hotels  nor  private  dwellings,  rum-holes  nor 
law-offices,  are  held  sacred  from  their  murderous  conflicts.  About  cer 
tain  silly  abstractions  that  no  practical  business  man  ever  allows  to 
occupy  his  time  or  attention,  they  are  eternally  wrangling ;  and  thus  it 
is  that  rencounters,  duels,  homicides,  and  other  demonstrations  of  per 
sonal  violence,  have  become  so  popular  in  all  slavenolding  communities. 
A  few  years  of  entire  freedom  from  the  cares  and  perplexities  of  public 
life  would,  we  have  no  doubt,  greatly  improve  both  their  manners  and 
their  morals ;  and  we  suggest  that  it  is  a  Christian  duty,  which  devolves 
on  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South,  to  disrobe  them  of  the  mantle  of 
office,  which  they  have  so  long  worn  with  disgrace  to  themselves,  injus 
tice  to  their  constituents,  and  ruin  to  their  country. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  such  men  as  Botts,  Stuart,  and  Macfarland 
of  Virginia ;  of  Eaynor,  Morehead,  Stanley,  Graves,  and  Graham  of 
North  Carolina;  of  Davis  and  Hoffman  of  Maryland;  of  Blair  and 
Brown  of  Missouri ;  of  the  Marshalls  of  Kentucky  ;  and  of  Etheridge  of 
Tennessee  ?  All  these  gentlemen,  and  many  others  of  the  same  school, 
entertain,  we  believe,  sentiments  similar  to  those  that  were  entertained 
by  the  immortal  Fathers  of  the  Republic — that  slavery  is  a  great  moral, 
social,  civil,  and  political  evil,  to  be  got  rid  of  at  the  earliest  practicable 
period — and  if  they  do,  in  order  to  secure  our  votes,  it  is  only  necessary 
for  them  to  u  have  the  courage  of  their  opinions,"  to  renounce  slavery, 
and  to  come  out  frankly,  fairly  and  squarely  in  favor  of  freedom.  To 
neither  of  these  patriotic  sons  of  the  South,  nor  to  any  one  of  the  class 
to  which  they  belong,  would  we  give  any  offence  whatever.  In  our 
strictures  on  the  criminality  of  pro-slavery  demagogues  we  have  had 
heretofore,  and  shall  have  hereafter,  no  sort  of  reference  to  any  respect- 

4* 


82  HOW    SLAVEEY   CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 

able  slaveholder— by  which  we  mean,  any  slaveholder  who  admits  the 
injustice  and  inhumanity  of  slavery,  and  who  is  not  averse  to  the  discus 
sion  of  measures  for  its  speedy  and  total  extinction.  Such  slaveholders 
are  virtually  on  our  side — that  is,  on  the  side  of  the  non-slaveholding 
whites,  with  whom  they  ma}  very  properly  be  classified.  On  this  point, 
once  for  all,  we  desire  to  be  distinctly  understood  ;  for  it  would  be  mani 
festly  unjust  not  to  discriminate  between  the  anti-slavery  proprietor  who 
owns  slaves  by  the  law  of  entailment,  and  the  pro-slavery  proprietor  who 
engages  in  the  traffic  and  becomes  an  aider  an  abettor  of  the  system  from 
sheer  turpitude  of  heart ;  hence  the  propriety  of  this  special  disclaimer. 

If  we  have  a  correct  understanding  of  the  positions  which  they 
assumed,  some  of  the  gentlemen  whose  names  are  written  above,  gave, 
during  the  last  presidential  campaign,  ample  evidence  of  their  unswerv 
ing  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people,  the 
non-slaveholding  whites ;  and  it  is  our  unbiased  opinion  that  a  more 
positive  truth  is  nowhere  recorded  in  Holy  "Writ,  than  Kenneth  Eaynor 
uttered,  when  he  said,  in  substance,  that  the  greatest  good  that  could 
happen  to  this  country  would  be  the  complete  overthrow  of  Black  Demo 
cracy,  alias  the  pro-slavery  party,  which  has  for  its  head  and  front  the 
Ritchies  and  Wises  of  Virginia,  and  for  its  caudal  termination  the  Iveitts 
and  Quattlebums  of  South  Carolina. 

Peculiarly  illustrative  of  the  material  of  which  sham  democracy  is 
composed  was  the  vote  polled  at  the  Five  Points  precinct,  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  on  the  4th  of  November,  1856,  when  James  Buchanan 
was  chosen  President  by  a  minority  of  the  people.  We  will  produce 
the  figures : 

Five  Points  Precinct,  New  York  City,  1856. 

Votes  cast  for  James  Buchanan 574 

"  "      John  C.  Fremont 16 

"  "      Millard  Fillmore 9 

It  will  be  recollected  that  Col.  Fremont's  majority  over  Buchanan,  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  was  between  seventy-eight  and  seventy-nine 
thousand,  and  that  he  ran  ahead  of  the  Fillmore  ticket  to  the  number  of 
nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  one  thousand.  We  have  not  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  that  he  is  perfectly  satisfied  with  Mr.  Buchanan's  triumph  at 
the  Five  Points,  which,  with  the  exception  of  the  slave-pens  in  Southern 
cities,  is,  perhaps,  the  most  vile  and  heart-sic  ironing  locality  in  the 
United  States. 

One  of  the  most  noticeable  and  commendable  features  of  the  last 
general  election  is  this :  almost  every  State,  whose  inhabitants  have 
enjoyed  the  advantages  of  free  soil,  free  labor,  free  speech,  free  presses, 
and  free  schools,  and  who  have,  in  consequence,  become  great  in  num 
bers,  in  virtue,  in  wealth,  and  in  wisdom,  voted  for  Fremont,  the  Kepub- 
lican  candidate,  who  was  pledged  to  use  his  influence  for  the  extension 


HOW    SLAVERY    CAX    BE   ABOLISHED.  83 

df  ake  advantages  to  other  parts  of  the  country.  On  the  other  hand, 
with  a  single  honorable  exception,  all  the  States  which  "  have  got  to 
hating  everything  with  the  prefix  Free,  from  free  negroes  down  and  up 
through  the  whole  catalogue — free  farms,  free  labor,  free  society,  free 
will,  free  thinking,  free  children,  and  free  schools,"  and  which  have 
exposed  their  citizens  to  all  the  perils  of  numerical  weakness,  absolute 
Ignorance,  and  hopeless  poverty,  voted  for  Buchanan,  the  Democratic 
candidate,  who,  in  reply  to  the  overtures  of  his  pro-slavery  partisans, 
Jiad  signified  his  willingness  to  pursue  a  policy  that  would  perpetuate 
and  disseminate,  without  limit,  the  multitudinous  evils  of  human  bondage. 

That  less  than  tJiree^cr  cent,  of  those  who  voted  for  Col.  Frcmort, 
that  only  about  Jive  per  cent,  of  those  who  gave  their  suffrages  to  Mr. 
Fillmore,  and  that  more  than  eighteen  per  cent,  of  those  who  supported 
Mr.  Buchanan,  were  persons  over  one-and-twenty  years  of  age  who  could 
not  read  and  write,  are  estimates  which  we  have  no  doubt  are  not  far 
from  the  truth,  and  which,  in  the  absence  of  reliable  statistics,  we  ven 
ture  to  give,  hoping,  by  their  publicity,  to  draw  closer  attention  to  the 
fact,  that  the  illiterate  foreigners  of  the  North,  and  the  unlettered  natives 
of  the  South,  were  cordially  united  in  their  suicidal  adherence  to  the 
pro-slavery  party.  With  few  exceptions,  all  the  intelligent  non-slave 
holders  of  the  South,  in  concert  with  the  more  respectable  slaveholders, 
voted  for  Mr.  Fillmore ;  certain  rigidly  patriotic  persons  of  the  former 
class,  whose  hearts  were  so  entirely  with  the  gallant  Fremont  that  they 
refused  to  vote  at  ail— simply  because  they  did  not  dare  to  express  their 
preference  for  him — form  the  exceptions  to  which  we  allude. 

Though  the  Whig,  Democratic,  and  Know-Nothing  newspapers,  in  all 
the  States,  free  and  slave,  denounced  Col.  Fremont  as  an  intolerant 
Catholic,  it  is  now  generally  conceded  that  he  was  nowhere  supported 
by  the  peculiar  friends  of  Pope  Pius  IX.  The  votes  po^ed  at  the  Five 
Points  precinct,  which  is  almost  exclusively  inhabited  by  low  Irish 
Catholics,  show  how  powerfully  the  Jesuitical  influence  was  brought  to 
bear  against  him.  At  that  delectable  locality,  as  we  have  already  shown, 
the  timid  Sage  of  Wheatland  received  five  hundred  and  seventy -four  votes 
-  -whereas  the  dauntless  Finder  of  Empire  received  only  sixteen. 

True  to  their  instincts  for  Freedom,  the  Germans,  generally,  voted  the 
light  ticket,  and  they  will  do  it  again,  and  continue  to  do  it.  With  the 
ntelligent  Protestant  element  of  the  Fatherland  on  our  side,  wo  can  well 
afForl  to  dispense  with  the  ignorant  Catholic  element  of  the  Emerald 
Isle.  In  the  influences  which  they  exert  on  society,  there  is  so  little 
difference  between  Slavery,  Popery,  and  Negro-driving  Democracy,  that 
we  are  not  at  all  surprised  to  see  them  going  hand  in  hand  in  their  dia 
bolical  work  of  inhumanity  and  desolation. 

There  is,  indeed,  no  lack  of  evidence  to  show  that  the  Democratic 
,wrty  of f  o-day  is  simply  and  unreservedly  a  sectional  slavery  party!  On 


84  NOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED. 

the  15 tli  of  December,  1S5G,  but  a  few  weeks  subsequent  to  the  appeal- 
ance  of  a  scandalous  message  from  an  infamous  governor  of  South  Caro 
lina,  recommending  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave  trade,  Emerson 
Etheridge  of  Tennessee — honor  to  his  name! — submitted,  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  the  following  timely  resolution  : 

'  Resolved — That  this  House  regard  all  suggestions  or  propositions  of  every 
kind,  by  -whomsoever  made,  for  a  revival  of  the  slave  trade,  AS  shocking  to  the 
moral  sentiments  of  the  enlightened  portion  of  mankind,  and  that  any  K-ct  on  the 
part  of  Congress,  legislating  "for,  conniving  at,  or  legalizing  that  horrid  and  inhu 
man  traffic,  would  justly  subject  the  United  States  to  the  reproach  and  execration 
of  all  civilized  and  Christian  people  throughout  the  world." 

Who  voted  for  this  resolution  ?  and  who  voted  against  it  ?  Let  the 
yeas  and  nays  answer;  they  are  on  record,  and  he  who  takes  the  trou 
ble  to  examine  them  will  find  that  the  resolution  encountered  no  oppo 
sition  worth  mentioning,  except  from  members  of  the  Democratic  party. 
Scrutinize  the  yeas  and  nays  on  any  other  motion  or  resolution  affecting 
the  question  of  slavery,  and  the  fact  that  a  majority  of  the  members  of 
this  party  have  uniformly  voted  for  the  retention  and  extension  of  the 
"sum  of  all  villainies,"  will  at  once  be  apparent. 

For  many  years  the  slave-driving  Democrats  of  the  South  have  labored 
most  strenuously,  both  by  day  and  by  night — we  regret  to  say  how  un 
successfully — to  point  out  abolition  proclivities  in  the  Whig  and  Know- 
Nothing  parties,  the  latter  of  which  is  now  buried,  and  deservedly,  so 
deep  in  the  depths  of  the  dead,  that  it  is  quite  preposterous  to  suppose  it 
will  ever  see  the  light  of  resurrection. 

For  its  truckling  concessions  to  the  slave  power,  the  Whig  part} 
merited  defeat,  and  defeated  it  was,  and  that,  too,  in  the  most  decisive 
and  overwhelming  manner.  But  there  is  yet  in  this  party  much  vitality 
and  if  its  friends  will  reorganize,  detach  themselves  from  the  burden  oi 
slavery,  and  hoist  the  fair  flag  of  freedom,  the  time  may  come,  at  a  daj> 
]>y  no  means  remote,  when  their  hearts  will  exult  in  triumph  over  the 
ruins  of  miscalled  Democracy. 

It  is  not  too  late,  however,  for  the  Democratic  party  to  secure  to  itself 
a  pure  renown  and  an  almost  certain  perpetuation  of  its  power.  Let  it 
at  once  discard  the-  worship  of  slavery,  and  do  earnest  battle  for  the 
principles  of  freedom,  and  it  will  live  victoriously  to  a  period  far  in  the 
future.  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  does  not  soon  repudiate  the  fatal  here 
sies  which  it  has  incorporated  into  its  creed,  its  doom  will  be  inevitable. 
Until  the  black  11  ag  entirely  disappears  from  its  array,  we  warn  the  non- 
slaveholders  of  the  South  to  repulse  and  keep  it  at  a  distance,  as  they 
would  the  emblazoned  skull  and  cross-bones  that  flout  them  from  the  flag 
of  the  pirate. 

"With  regard  to  the  sophistical  reasoning  which  tenches  that  abolition 
ists,  before  abolishing  slavery,  should  compensate  the  slaveholders  ftu  ill 


SLAVERY    CAN    BIO    ABOLISHED.  85 

or  any  number  of  the  negroes  in  their  possession,  we  shall  endeavor  not 
to  be  wearisome  ;  but  wishing  to  brace  our  arguments,  in  every  impor 
tant  particular,  with  unequivocal  testimony  from  men  whom  we  are  ac 
customed  to  regard  as  models  of  political  sagacity  and  integrity — from 
Southern  men  as  far  as  possible — we  herewith  present  an  extract  from 
a  soeech  delivered  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates,  January  20,  1832, 
l»y  Charles  James  Faulkner,  whose  sentiments,  as  then  and  there 
.-=:;  j  ressed,  can  hardly  fail  to  find  a  response  in  the  heart  of  every  intelli 
gent,  upright  man : 

"  But,  sir,  it  is  said  that  society  having  conferred  this  property  on  the  slaveholder, 
it  cannot  now  take  it  from  him  without  an  adequate  compensation,  by  which  is 
meant  full  value.  I  may  be  singular  in  the  opinion,  but  I  defy  the  legal  research  of 
the  House  to  point  me  to  a  principle  recognized  by  the  law,  even  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  its  adjudications,  where  the  community  pays  for  property  which  ia 
removed  or  destroyed  because  it  is  a  nuisance,  and  found  injurious  to  that  society. 
There  is,  I  humbly  apprehend,  no  such  principle.  There  is  no  obligation  upon 
society  to  continue  your  right  one  moment  after  it  becomes  injurious  to  the  best 
interests  of  society;  nor  to  compensate  you  for  the  loss  of  that,  the  deprivation  of 
which  is  demanded  by  the  safety  of  the  State,  and  in  which  general  benefit  you  par 
ticipate  as  a  member  of  the  community.  Sir,  there  is  to  my  mind  a  manifest  dis 
tinction  between  condemning  private  property  to  be  applied  to  some  beneficial 
public  purpose,  and  condemning  or  removing  private  property  which  is  ascertained 
to  be  a  positive  wrong  to  society.  It  is  a  distinction  which  pervades  the  whole 
genius  of  the  law ;  and  is  founded  upon  the  idea,  that  any  man  who  holds  property 
injurious  to  the  peace  of  that  society  of  which  he  is  a  member,  thereby  violates  the 
condition  upon  the  observance  of  which  his  right  to  the  property  is  alone  guaran 
teed.  For  property  of  the  first  class  condemned  there  ought  to  be  compensation; 
but  for  the  property  of  the  latter  class,  none  can  be  demanded  up  on  principle,  none 
accorded  as  a  matter  of  right. 

'•  It  is  conceded  that,  at  this  precise  moment  of  our  legislation,  slaves  are  inju 
rious  to  the  interests  and  threaten  the  subversion  and  ruin  of  this  Commonwealth. 
Their  present  number,  their  increasing  number,  all  admonish  us  of  this.  In  differ 
ent  terms,  and  in  more  measured  language,  the  same  fact  has  been  conceded  by  all 
\vir>  have  yet  addressed  this  House.  '  Something  must  be  done,'  emphatically  ex 
claimed  the  gentleman  from  Dinwiddie ;  and  I  thought  I  could  perceive  a  response 
to  that  declaration,  in  the  countenance  of  a  large  majority  of  this  body.  And  why 
must  something  be  done?  Because  if  not,  says  the  gentleman  from  Campbell,  the 
throats  of  all  the  while  people  of  Virginia  will  be  cut.  No,  says  the  gentleman  from 
Dinwiddie— *  The  whites  cannot  be  conquered — the  throats  of  the  blacks  will  be 
cut.'  It  is  a  trifling  difference,  to  be  sure,  sir,  and  matters  not  to  the  argument. 
For  the  fact  is  conceded,  that  one  race  or  the  other  must  be  exterminated. 

*'  Sir,  such  being  the  actual  condition  of  this  Commonwealth,  I  ask  if  we  would 
not  be  justified  now,  supposing  all  considerations  of  policy  and  humanity  concurred, 
without  even  a  moment's  delay,  in  staving  off  this  appalling  and  overwhelming 
calamity  ?  Sir,  if  this  immense  negro  population  were  now  in  arms,  gathering 
into  black  and  formidable  masses  of  attack,  would  that  man  be  listened  to,  who 
spoke  about  property,  who  prayed  you  not  to  direct  your  artillery  to  such  or  such 
a  point,  for  you  would  destroy  some  of  his  property?  Sir,  to  the  eye  of  the  States- 
v.  t".,  as  to  the  eye  of  Omniscience,  dangers  pressing,  and  dangers  that  must  neces- 
i.irily  press,  are  alike  present.  With  a  single  glance  he  embraces  Virginia  now, 
K'th  the  elements  of  destruction  reposing  quietly  upon  her  bosom,  and  Virginia  is 
lighted  from  one  extremity  to  the  other  with  the  torch  of  servile  insurrection  and 
massacre.  It  is  not  sufficient  for  him  that  the  match  is  not  yet  applied.  It  is  enough 
that  the  magazine  is  open,  and  the  match  will  shortly  be  applied. 

"  Sir,  it  is  true  in  national  as  it  is  in  private  contracts,  that  loss  and  injury 
to  one  party  may  constitute  as  fair  a  consideration  as  gain  to  the  other.  Does 
the  slaveholder,  while  he  is  enjoying  his  slaves,  reflect  upon  the  deep  injury 
and  incalculable  loss  which  the  possession  of  that  property  inflicts  upon  the  true 
interests  of  the  country?  Slavery,  it  is  admitted,  is  an  evil — it  is  an  institution 
which  presses  heavily  against  the  best  interests  of  the  State.  It  banishes  fre* 
white  labor,  it  exterminates  the  mechanic,  the  artisan,  the  manufacturer.  It  de 
privcs  them  of  occupation.  It  deprives  them  of  bread.  It  converts  the  ene"gv  o<. 


86  HOW   SLAVERY    CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

a  community  into  indolence,  its  power  into  imbecility,  its  efficiency  into  weakness. 
Sir,  being  thus  injurious,  have  we  not  a  right  to  demand  its  extermination?  shall 
society  suffer,  that  the  slaveholder  may  continue  to  gather  his  crop  of  human  flesh? 
What  is  his  mere  pecuniary  claim  compared  with  the  great  interests  of  the  common 
weal?  Must  the  country  languish,  droop,  die,  that  the  slaveholder  may  flourish? 
Shall  all  the  interests  be  subservient  to  one — all  rights  subordinate  to  those  of  the 
slaveholder?  Has  not  the  mechanic,  have  not  the  middle  classes  their  rights — 
rights  incompatible  with  the  existence  of  slavery? 

"Sir,  so  great  and  overshadowing  are  the  evils  of  slavery — so  sensibly  are  they 
felt  by  those  who  have  traced  the  causes  of  our  national  decline — so  perceptible  is 
the  poisonous  operation  of  its  principles  in  the  varied  and  diversified  interests  in 
this  Commonwealth,  that  all,  whose  minds  are  not  warped  by  prejudice  or  interest, 
must  admit  tiiat  the  disease  has  now  assumed  that  mortal  tendency,  as  to  justify 
the  application  of  any  remedy  which,  under  the  great  law  of  State  rc-jessity.  we 
might  consider  advisable." 

At  once  let  the  good  and  true  men  of  this  country,  the  patriot  sons 
of  the  patriot  fathers,  determine  that  the  sun  which  rises  to  celeb;  ate 
the  centennial  anniversary  of  our  national  independence,  shall  not  se';  on 
the  head  of  any  slave  within  the  limits  of  this  Republic.  Y7ill  not  the 
non-slaveholders  of  the  North,  of  the  South,  of  the  East,  and  of  the 
West,  heartily,  unanimously  sanction  this  proposition?  Will  it  not  be 
cheerfully  indorsed  by  many  of  the  slaveholders  themselves  ?  Will  any 
respectable  man  enter  a  protest  against  it?  On  the  4th  of  July,  187G — 
sooner,  if  we  can — let  us  mate  good,  at  least  so  far  as  we  are  concerned, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  was  proclaimed  in  Philadelphia 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1776— that  "all  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator 
with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among  these,  are  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  that  to  secure  these  rights,  governments  are 
instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed ;  that  whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes  destruc 
tive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it, 
and  to  nstitute  a  new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  prin 
ciples,  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem 
most  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness/'  In  purging  our  land 
of  the  iniquity  of  negro  slavery,  we  shall  only  be  carrying  on  the  great 
work  that  was  so  successfully  commenced  by  our  noble  sires  of  the 
Revolution  ;  some  future  generation  may  possibly  complete  the  work  by 
annulling  the  last  and  least  form  of  oppression. 

To  turn  the  slaves  away  from  their  present  homes — away  from  all  the 
property  and  means  of  support  which  their  labor  has  mainly  produced, 
ivould  be  unpardonably  cruel — exceedingly  unjust.  Still  more  cruel  and 
unjust  would  it  be,  however,  to  the  non-slaveholding  whites  no  less  than 
to  the  negroes,  to  grant  farther  toleration  to  the  existence  of  slavery. 
In  any  event,  come  what  will,  transpire  what  may,  the  system  must  be 
abolished.  The  evils,  if  any,  which  arc  to  result  from  abolition,  cannot, 
by  any  manner  of  means,  be  half  as  great  as  the  evils  which  are  certain 
to  overtake  us  in  case  of  its  continuance.  The  perpetuation  of  slavery 
is  the  climax  of  iniquity 


HOW    SLAVERY   CAN    BE   ABOLISHED.  87 

f  wo  ?•  -indred  and  thirty-nine  years  have  the  negroes  in  America  been 
held  in  'nhunian  bondage.  During  the  whole  of  this  long  period  they 
have  temd  unceasingly,  from  the  grey  of  dawn  till  the  dusk  of  eve,  for 
their  cruel  task-masters,  who  have  rewarded  them  with  scanty  allow 
ances  of  the  most  inferior  qualities  of  victuals  and  clothes,  with  heart 
less  separations  of  the  tenderest  ties  of  kindred,  with  epithets,  with 
scoldings,  with  execrations,  and  with  the  lash — and,  not  unfrequently, 
with  the  fatal  bludgeon  or  the  more  deadly  weapon.  From  the  labor  of 
their  hands,  and  from  the  fruit  of  their  loins,  the  human-mongers  of  the 
Sou 'fa  have  become  wea.thy,  insolent,  corrupt  and  tyrannical.  In  reason 
and  in  conscience,  it  must  be  admitted,  the  slaves  might  claim  for  them 
selves  a  liberal  allowance  of  the  proceeds  of  their  labor.  If  they  were 
to  demand  an  equal  share  of  all  the  property,  real  and  personal,  which 
has  been  accumulated  or  produced  through  their  efforts,  Heaven,  we 
believe,  would  recognize  them  as  honest  claimants. 

Elsewhere  we  have  shown,  by  just  and  liberal  estimates,  that,  on  the 
single  score  of  damages  to  lands,  the  slaveholders  are,  at  this  moment, 
indebted  to  the  non^slaveholding  whites  in  the  .extraordinary  sum  of 
$7,544,148,825.  Considered  in  connection  with  the  righteous  claim  of 
wages  for  services  which  the  negroes  might  bring  against  their  masters, 
these  figures  are  the  heralds  of  the  significant  fact  that,  if  strict  justice 
could  be  meted  out  to  all  parties  in  the  South,  the  slaveholders  would 
not  only  be  stripped  of  every  dollar,  but  they  would  become  in  law  as 
they  are  in  reality,  the  hopeless  debtors  of  the  myriads  of  unfortunate 
slaves,  white  and  black,  who  are  now  cringing,  and  fawning,  and  fester 
ing  around  them. 

For  the  services  of  the  blacks  from  the  20th  of  August,  1620,  up  to 
the  4th  of  July,  1869 — an  interval  of  precisely  two  hundred  and  forty- 
eight  years  ten  months  and  fourteen  days — their  masters,  if  unwilling, 
ought,  in  our  judgment,  to  be  compelled  to  grant  them  their  freedom, 
and  to  pay  each  and  every  one  of  them  at  least  sixty  dollars  cash  in 
hand.  The  aggregate  sum  thus  raised  would  amount  to  about  two  hun 
dred  and  fifty  million  of  dollars,  which  is  less  than  the  total  market  value 
of  two  entire  crops  of  cotton — one-half  of  which  sum  would  be  amply 
sufficient  to  land  every  negro  in  this  country  on  the  coast  of  Liberia, 
whither,  if  we  had  the  power,  we  would  ship  them  all  within  the  next 
six  months.  As  a  means  of  protection  against  the  exigencies  which 
might  arise  from  a  sudden  transition  from  their  present  homes  in  Ame 
rica  to  their  future  homez  in  Africa,  and  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
them  there  to  take  the  iniatory  step  in  the  walks  of  civilized  life,  the 
remainder  of  the  sum — say  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  million 
of  dollars — might,  very  properly, .  be  equally  distributed  amongst  them 
after  their  arrival  in  the  land  of  their  fathers. 

T)r,  James  Hall,  the  Secretary  of  the  Maryland  Colonization  Society 


Emigrants 

to 
Liberia. 


88  HOW    SLAVERY   CAN   BE   ABOLISHED. 

informs  us  that  the  average  cost  of  sending  negroes  to  Liberia  docs  not 
exceed  thirty  dollars  each  ;  and  it  is  his  opinion  that  arrangements  might 
be  made  on  an  extensive  plan  for  conveying  them  thither  at  an  average 
expense  of  not  more  than  twenty-five  dollars  each. 

The  American  colonization  movement,  as  now  systematized  and  con 
ducted,  is,  in  our  opinion,  simply  an  American  humane  farce.  At  pre 
sent  the  slaves  are  increasing  in  this  country  at  the  rate  of  nearly  one 
hundred  thousand  per  annum;  within  the  last  twelve  years,  as  will 
appear  below,  the  American  Colonization  Society  has  sent  to  Liberia 
less  than  five  thousand  negroes. 

Emigrants  sent  to  Liberia  by  the  American  Colonization  Society, 
during  the  twelve  years  ending  January  1st,  1859. 

In  1847 39 

In  1848 213 

In  1849 474 

In  1850 590 

In  1851 279 

In  1852 568 

In  1853 683 

In  1854 783 

In  1855 207 

In  1856 544 

In  1857 370 

_  In  1858 163 

Total 4,813 

liie  average  of  this  total  is  a  fraction  over  four  hundred  and  one, 
which  may  be  said  to  be  the  number  of  negroes  annually  colonized  by 
the  society ;  while  the  yearly  increase  of  slaves,  as  previously  stated,  is 
little  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  ?  Fiddlesticks  for  such  coloniza 
tion  !  Once  for  all,  within  a  reasonably  short  period,  let  us,  by  an 
equitable  system  of  legislation,  and  by  such  other  measures  as  may  be 
right  and  proper,  compel  the  slaveholders  to  do  something  like  justice  to 
their  negroes  by  giving  each  and  every  one  of  them  his  freedom,  and 
sixty  dollars  in  current  money  ;  then  let  us  charter  all  the  ocean  steam 
ers,  packets  and  clipper  ships  that  can  be  had  on  liberal  terms,  and  keep 
them  constantly  plying  between  the  ports  of  America  and  Africa,  until 
nil  the  slaves  who  are  here  held  in  bondage  shall  enjoy  freedom  in  the 
land  of  their  fathers.  Under  a  well-devised  and  properly  conducted 
system  of  operations,  but  a  few  years  would  be  required  to  redeem  the 
United  States  from  the  monstrous  curse  of  negro  slavery. 

Some  few  years  ago,  when  certain  ethnographical  oligarchs  proved  to 
their  own  satisfaction  that  the  negro  was  an  inferior  "type  of  mankind," 
they  chuckled  wonderfully,  and  avowed,  in  substance,  that  it  was  right 
for  the  stronger  race  to  kidnap  and  enslave  the  weaker — that  becanse 
Nature  had  been  pleased  to  do  a  trifle  more  for  the  Caucasian  race  than 
for  the  African,  the  former,  by  virtue  of  its  superiority,  was  perfectly 


HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE    ABOLISHED.  89 

justifiable  in  holding  the  latter  in  abso.ute  and  perpetual  bondage !  No 
system  of  logic  could  be  more  antagonistic  to  the  spirit  of  true  democracy. 
It  is  probable  that  the  world  does  not  contain  two  persons  who  are 
exactly  alike  in  all  respects ;  yet  "all  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator 
with  certain  inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness."  All  mankind  may  or  may  not  be  the  descend 
ants  of  Adam  and  Eve.  In  our  own  humble  way  of  thinking,  we  are 
frank  to  confess,  we  do  not  believe  in  the  unity  of  the  races.  This  is  a 
matter,  however,  which  lias  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  great  ques 
tion  at  issue.  Aside  from  any  theory  concerning  the  original  parentage 
of  the  different  races  of  men,  facts,  material  and  immaterial,  palpable 
and  impalpable — facts  of  the  eyes  and  facts  of  the  conscience — crowd 
around  us  on  every  hand,  heaping  proof  upon  proof,  that  slavery  is  a 
shame,  a  crime,  and  a  curse — a  great  moral,  social,  civil,  and  political 
evil — an  oppressive  burden  to  the  blacks,  and  an  incalculable  injury  to 
the  whites — a  stumbling-block  to  the  nation,  an  impediment  to  progress, 
a  damper  on  all  the  nobler  instincts,  principles,  aspirations  and  enter 
prises  of  man,  and  a  dire  enemy  to  every  true  interest. 

Waiving  all  other  counts,  we  have,  we  think,  shown,  to  the  satisfac 
tion  of  every  impartial  reader,  that,  as  elsewhere  stated,  on  the  single 
score  of  damages  to  lands,  the  slaveholders  are,  at  this  moment, 
indebted  to  us,  the  non-slaveholding  whites,  in  the  enormous  sum  of 
nearly  seventy-six  hundred  million  of  dollars.  What  shall  be  done  with 
this  amount  ?  It  is  just ;  shall  payment  be  demanded  ?  No ;  all  the 
slaveholders  in  the  country  could  not  pay  it ;  nor  shall  we  ever  ask  them 
for  even  a  moiety  of  the  amount — no,  not  even  for  a  dime,  nor  yet  for  a 
cent;  we  are  willing  to  forfeit  every  farthing  for  the  sake  of  freedom; 
for  ourselves  we  ask  no  indemnification  for  the  past :  we  only  demand 
justice  for  the  future. 

But  sirs,  slaveholders,  chevaliers  and  lords  of  the  lash,  we  are 
unwilling  to  allow  you  to  cheat  the  negroes  out  of  all  the  rights  and 
claims  to  which,  as  human  beings,  they  are  most  sacredly  entitled.  Not 
alone  for  ourself  as  an  individual,  but  for  others  also — particularly  for 
five  or  six  million  of  Southern  non-slaveholding  whites,  whom  your 
iniquitous  statism  has  debarred  from  almost  all  the  mental  and  material 
comforts  of  life — do  we  speak,  w^hen  we  say,  you  must,  sooner  or  later, 
emancipate  your,  slaves,  and  pay  each  and  every  one  of  them  at  least 
sixty  dollars  cash  in  hand.  By  doing  this,  you  will  be  restoring  to  them 
their  natural  rights,  and  remunerating  them  at  the  rate  of  less  than 
twenty-six  cents  per  annum  for  the  long  and  cheerless  period  of  their 
servitude,  from  the  20th  of  August,  1620,  when,  on  James  Eiver,  in 
Virginia,  they  became  the  unhappy  slaves  of  heartless  tyrants.  More 
over,  by  doing  this  you  will  be  performing  but  a  simple  act  of  justice 
to  the  non-slaveholding  whites,  upon  whom  the  system  of  slavery  bas 


90  HOW    SLAVERY    CAN    BE   ABOLISHED. 

weighed  scarcely  less  heavily  than  upon  the  negroes  themselves.  You 
will  also  to  applying  a  saving  balm  to  your  own  outraged  hearts  and 
consciences,  and  your  children — yourselves  in  fact — freed  from  the 
accursed  stain  of  shivery,  will  become  respectable,  useful,  and  honora 
ble  members  of  society. 

And  now,  sirs,  we  have  thus  laid  down  our  ultimatum.  "What  are  yon 
going  to  do  about  it?  Something  dreadful,  of  course!  Perhaps  you 
will  dissolve  the  Union  again.  Do  it,  if  you  darel  Our  motto,  and  we 
would  have  you  to  understand  it,  is  The  Abolition  of  Slavery,  and  the 
Perpetuation  of  the  American  Union.  If,  by  any  means,  you  do  suc 
ceed  in  your  treasonable  attempts,  to  take  the  South  out  of  the  Union 
to-day,  we  will  bring  her  back  to-morrow — if  she  goes  away  with  you, 
she  will  return  without  yon. 

Do  not  mistake  the  meaning  of  the  last  clause  of  the  last  sentence ; 
we  could  elucidate  it  so  thoroughly  that  no  intelligent  person  could  fail 
to  comprehend  it;  but,  for  reasons  which  may  hereafter  appear,  we 
forego  the  task. 

Henceforth  there  are  other  interests  to  be  consulted  in  the  South, 
aside  from  the  interests  of  negroes  and  slaveholders.  A  profound  sense 
of  duty  incites  us  to  make  the  greatest  possible  efforts  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery ;  an  equally  profound  sense  of  duty  calls  for  a  continuation  of 
those  efforts  until  the  very  last  foe  to  freedom  shall  have  been  utterly 
vanquished.  To  the  summons  of  the  righteous  monitor  within,  we  shall 
endeavor  to  prove  faithful ;  no  opportunity  for  inflicting  a  mortal  wound 
in  the  side  of  slavery  shall  be  permitted  to  pass  us  unimproved. 

Thus,  terror-engenderers  of  the  South,  have  we  fully  and  frankly  denned 
our  position  ;  we  have  no  modifications  to  propose,  no  compromises  to 
oiler,  nothing  to  retract.  Frown,  sirs,  fret,  foam,  prepare  your  weapons, 
threat,  strike,  shoot,  stab,  bring  on  civil  Avar,  dissolve  the  Union,  nay 
annihilate  the  solar  system  if  you  will — do  all  this,  more,  less,  better, 
worsc\  anything — do  what  you  will,  sirs.  you.  can  neither  foil  nor  intimi 
date  us  ;  our  purpose  is  as  firmly  fixed  as  the  eternal  pillars  of  Heaven  ; 
we  have  determined  to  abolish  slavery,  and,  so  help  us  God,  abolish  it 
we  will!  Take  this  to  bed  with  yen  to-night,  sirs,  and  think  about  it^ 
dream  over  it,  &ai  let  us  know  how  yon  feel  to-morrow  morning. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY   AGAINST   SLAVERY. 

"Slavery  is  detested— we  feel  its  fatal  effects— we  Jeplore  it  with  all  the  earneslnwg  9l 
numanity. " — PATRICK  HE-SKY. 

IF  it  please  the  reader,  let  him  forget  all  that  we  have  written  on  the 
subject  of  slavery ;  if  it  accord  with  his  inclination,  let  him  ignore  all 
that  we  may  write  hereafter.  "We  seek  not  to  give  special  currency  to 
our  own  peculiar  opinions ;  our  greatest  ambition,  in  these  pages,  is  to 
popularize  the  sayings  and  admonitions  of  wiser  and  better  men.  Mira 
cles,  we  believe,  are  no  longer  wrought  in  this  bedeviled  world ;  but  if, 
by  any  conceivable  or  possible  supernatural  event,  the  great  Founders 
of  the  Republic,  "Washington,  Jefferson,  Henry,  and  others,  could  be 
reinvested  with  corporeal  life,  and  returned  to  the  South,  there  is  scarcely 
a  slaveholder  between  the  Potomac  and  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
that  would  not  burn  to  pounce  upon  them  with  bludgeons,  bowie-knives 
and  pistols !  Yes,  without  adding  another  word,  Washington  would  be 
mobbed  for  what  he  has  already  said.  "Were  Jefferson  now  employed  as 
a  professor  in  a  Southern  college,  he  would  be  dismissed  and  driven  from 
the  State,  perhaps  murdered  before  he  reached  the  border.  If  Patrick 
Henry  were  a  bookseller  in  Alabama,  though  it  might  be  demonstrated 
beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that  he  had  never  bought,  sold,  received, 
or  presented,  any  kind  of  literature  except  Bibles  and  Testaments,  ho 
would  first  be  subjected  to  the  ignominy  of  a  coat  of  tar  and  feathers,  and 
then  limited  to  the  option  of  unceremonious  expatriation  or  death. 
How  seemingly  impossible  are  these  statements,  and  yet  how  true! 
Where  do  we  ntand  ?  WThat  is  our  faith  ?  Are  we  a  flock  without  a 
shepherd?  a  people  without  a  prophet  ?  a  nation  without  a  government  ? 

Has  the  past,  with  all  its  glittering  monuments  of  genius  and  patriot 
ism,  furnished  no  beacon  by  which  we  may  direct  our  footsteps  in  the 
future  ?  If  we  but  prove  true  to  ourselves,  and  worthy  of  our  ancestry, 
we  have  nothing  to  fear;  our  Eevolutionary  sires  have  devised  and 
bequeathed  to  us  an  almost  perfect  national  policy.  Let  us  cherish,  and 
defend,  and  build  upon,  the  fundamental  principles  of  that  polity,  and 
we  shall  most  assuredly  reap  the  golden  fruits  of  unparalleled  power,  vir- 
hie  and  prosperity.  Heaven  forbid  that  a  desperate  faction  of  pro-sla 
very  mountebanks  should  succeed  in  their  infamous  efforts  to  quench  tho 

01 


02  SOTJTHEEN   TESTIMONY   AGAINST   SLAVERY. 

spirit  of  liberty,  which  our  forefathers  infused  into  those  two  sacred 
charts  of  our  political  faith,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Oligarchal  politicians  are  aione  res 
ponsible  for  the  continuance  of  African  slavery  in  the  South.  For  pur 
poses  of  self-aggrandizement,  they  have  kept  learning  and  civilization 
from  the  people ;  they  have  willfully  misinterpreted  the  national  com 
pacts  and  have  outraged  their  own  consciences  by  declaring  to  their  illite 
rate  constituents,  that  the  Founders  of  theKepublic  were  not  abolitionists. 
When  the  dark  clouds  of  slavery,  error  and  ignorance  shall  have  passed 
away, — and  wo  believe  the  time  is  near  at  hand  when  they  are  to  be 
dissipated, — the  freemen  of  the  South,  like  those  of  other  sections,  will 
learn  the  glorious  truth,  that  inflexible  opposition  to  Human  Bondage 
has  formed  one  of  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  every  really 
good  or  great  man  that  our  country  has  produced. 

Non-slaveholders  of  the  South !  up  to  the  present  period,  neither  as  a 
body,  nor  as  individuals,  have  you  ever  had  an  independent  existence ; 
but,  if  true  to  yourselves  and  to  the  memory  of  your  fathers,  you,  in 
equal  copartnership  with  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  North,  will  soon 
become  the  honored  rulers  and  proprietors  of  the  most  powerful,  pros 
perous,  virtuous,  free,  and  peaceful  nation,  on  which  the  sun  has  ever 
shone.  Already  has  the  time  arrived  for  you  to  decide  upon  what  basis 
you  will  erect  your  political  superstructure.  Upon  whom  will  you 
depend  for  an  equitable  and  judicious  form  of  constitutional  govern 
ment  ?  Whom  will  you  designate  as  models  for  your  future  statesmen  ? 
Your  choice  lies  between  the  dead  and  the  living — between  the  Wash- 
ingtons,  the  Jeffersons  and  the  Madisons  of  the  past,  and  the  Quattle- 
bums,  the  Iversons  and  the  Slidells  of  the  present.  We  have  chosen ; 
choose  ye,  remembering  that  freedom  or  slavery  is  to  be  the  issue  of 
your  option. 

As  the  result  of  much  reading  and  research,  and  at  the  expenditure 
of  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  time,  labor  and  money,  we  now  proceed 
to  make  known  the  anti-slavery  sentiments  of  those  noble  abolitionists, 
the  Fathers  of  the  Republic,  whose  liberal  measures  of  public  policy 
have  been  so  criminally  perverted  by  the  treacherous  advocates  of 
slavery. 

Let  us  listen,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  voice  of  him  who  was  "first  in 
war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,"  to 

THE   VOICE   OF    WASHINGTON. 

In  a  letter  to  John  F.  Mercer,  dated  September  9th,  1786,  General 
Washington  says : 

"  I  never  mean,  unless  some  particular  circumstances  should  compel  me  to  it,  to 
possess  another  slave  by  purchase,  it  being  among  my  first  wishes  to  see  some  plan 
adopted  by  which  slavery,  in  this  country^  may  be  abolished  by  law." 


SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY  AGAINST   SLAVERY.  93 

In  a  letter  to  Kobert  Morris,  dated  April  12,  1786,  he  says  : 

"I  hope  it  will  not  be  conceived  from  these  observations  that  it  is  my  wish  to 
hold  the  unhappy  people  who  are  the  subject  of  this  letter  in  Slavery.  I  can  only 
say,  that  there  is  not  a  man  living,  who  wishes  more  sincerely  than  I  do,  to  see  a 
plan  adopted  for  the  abolition  of  it ;  but  there  is  only  one  proper  and  effectual 
mode  by  which  it  can  be  accomplished,  and  that  is  by  legislative  authority;  and 
this,  as  far  as  my  suffrage  will  go,  shall  never  be  wanting." 

lie  says,  in  a  letter 

•'  To  the  MARQUIS  DE  LAFAYETTE  :  April  5th,  1783. 

"The  scheme,  my  dear  Marquis,  which  you  propose  as  a  precedent,  to 
encourage  the  emancipation  of  the  black  people  in  this  country  from  the  state  of 
bondage  in  which  they  are  held,  is  a  striking  evidence  of  the  benevolence  of  your 
heart.  I  shall  be  happy  to  join  you  in  so  laudable  a  work;  but  will  defer  going 
into  a  detail  of  the  business  till  I  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you." 

In  another  letter  to  Lafayette,  he  says  : 

"  The  benevolence  of  your  heart,  my  dear  Marquis,  is  so  conspicuous  on  all  occa 
sions,  that  I  never  wonder  at  any  fresh  proofs  of  it ;  but  yotir  late  purchase  of  an 
estate  in  the  Colony  of  Cayenne,  Avith  the  view  of  emancipating  the  slaves  on  it,  is 
a  generous  and  noble  proof  of  your  humanity.  Would  to  God  a  like  spirit  might 
diffuse  itself  generally  into  the  minds  of  the  people  of  this  country." 

In  a  letter  to  Sir  John  Sinclair,  he  further  said  : 

"  There  are  in  Pennsylvania  laws  for  the  gradual  abolition  of  slavery,  which 
neither  Virginia  nor  Maryland  have  at  present,  but  which  nothing  is  more  certain 
than  they  must  have,  and  at  a  period  not  remote." 

In  a  letter  to  Charles  Pinckuey,  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  on  the 
17th  of  March,  1792,  he  says: 

"I  must  say  that  I  lament  the  decision  of  your  Legislature  upon  the  question 
of  importing  slaves  after  March,  1793.  I  was  in  hopes  that  motives  of  policy,  as 
well  as  other  good  reasons,  supported  by  the  direful  effects  of  Slavery,  which  at 
this  moment  are  presented,  would  have  operated  to  produce  a  total  prohibition  of 
the  importation  of  slaves,  whenever  the  question  came  to  be  agitated  in  any  State 
that  might  be  interested  in  the  measure." 

From  his  last  will  and  testament  we  make  the  following  extract : 

"  Upon  the  decease  of  my  wife,  it  is  my  will  and  desire  that  all  the  slaves  which 
I  hold  in  my  own  right  shall  receive  their  freedom.  To  emancipate  them  during  her 
life  would,  though  earnestly  wished  by  me,  be  attended  with  such  insuperable  diffi 
culties,  on  account  of  their  intermixture  by  marriage  with  the  dower  negroes,  as 
to  excite  the  most  painful  sensation,  if  not  disagreeable  consequences,  from  the 
latter,  while  both  descriptions  are  in  the  occupancy  of  the  same  proprietor,  it  not 
being  in  my  power,  under  the  tenure  by  which  the  dower  negroes  are  held,  to 
manumit  them." 

It  is  said  that,  "  when  Mrs.  "Washington  learned,  from  the  will  of  her 
deceased  husband,  that  the  only  obstacle  to  the  immediate  perfection  of 
this  provision  was  her  right  of  dower,  she  at  once  gave  it  up,  and  tho 
slaves  were  made  free."  A  man  might  possibly  concentrate  within  him 
self  more  real  virtue  and  influence  than  ever  Washington  possessed,  and 
yot  he  would  not  be  too  good  for  such  a  wife. 


94  SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY   AGAINST   SLAVERY. 

Fn-om  the  Father  of  his  Country,  we  now  turn  to  the  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.     We  will  listen  to 

THE   YOICE   OF   JEFFEKSON. 

On  the  39th  and  40th  pages  of  his  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  Jefferson 


4i  There  must  doubtless  be  an  unhappy  influence  on  tlie  manners  of  our  people, 
produced  by  the  existence  of  slavery  among  us.  The  whole  commerce  between 
master  and  slave  i.s  a  perpetual  exercise  of  the  most  boisterous  passions-  -the  most 
unremitting  despotism  on  the  one  part,  and  degrading  submissions  on  the  other. 
Our  children  see  this,  and  learn  to  imitate  it;  for  man  is  an  imitative  animal.  This 
quality  is  the  germ  of  all  education  in  him.  From  his  cradle  to  his  grave,  he  ia 
learning  to  do  what  he  sees  others  do.  If  a  parent  could  find  no  motive,  either  in 
his  philanthropy  or  his  self-love,  for  restraining  the  intemperance  of  passion  to 
wards  his  slave,  it  should  always  be  a  sufficient  one  that  his  child  is  present.  But 
generally  it  is  not  sufficient.  The  parent  storms,  the  child  looks  on,  catches  tho 
lineaments  of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the  circle  of  smaller  slaves,  gives  a 
loose  rein  to  the  worst  of  passions  ,  and,  thus  nursed,  educated,  and  daily  exercised 
in  tyranny,  cannot  but  be  stamped  by  it  with  odious  peculiarities.  The  man  must 
be  a  prodigy  who  can  retain  his  manners  and  morals  uudepraved  by  such  circum 
stances.  And  with  Avhat  execration  should  the  statesman  be  loaded,  who,  permit 
ting  one  half  the  citizens  thus  to  trample  on  the  rights  of  the  other,  transforms 
those  into  despots  and  these  into  enemies,  destroys  the  morals  of  the  one  part,  and 
the  amor  patri&  of  the  other  ;  for  if  a  slave  can  have  a  country  in  this  world,  it 
must  be  any  other  in  preference  to  that  in  which  he  is  born  to  live  and  labor  for 
another  ;  in  which  he  must  look  up  the  faculties  of  his  nature,  contribute,  as  far  as 
depends  on  his  individual  endeavors,  to  the  evanishment  of  the  human  race,  or  en 
tail  his  own  miserable  condition  on  the  endless  generations  proceeding  from  him. 
With  the  morals  of  the  people,  their  industry  is  also  destroyed  ;  for,  in  a  warm 
climate,  no  man  will  labor  for  himself  who  can  make  another  labor  for  him.  This 
is  so  true,  that  of  the  proprietors  of  slaves  a  very  small  proportion,  indeed,  are 
ever  seen  to  labor.  And  can  the  liberties  of  a  nation  be  thought  secure,  when,  we 
have  removed  their  only  firm  basis—  a  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  people  that 
these  liberties  are  the  gift  of  God  ?  that  they  are  not  to  be  violated  but  by  his 
wrath  ?  Indeed,  I  tremble  for  my  country  Avhen  I  reflect  that  God  is  just;  that  his 
justice  cannot  sleep  forever;  that  considering  numbers,  nature,  and  natural  means 
only,  a  revolution  of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  an  exchange  of  situation  is  among  pos 
sible  events;  that  it  may  become  probable  by  supernatural  interference!  The 
Almighty  has  no  attribute  which  can  take  side  with  us  in  such  a  contest." 

While  Virginia  was  yet  a  Colony,  in  1774,  she  held  a  Convention  to 
appoint  delegates  to  attend  the  first  general  Congress,  which  was  to 
assemble,  and  did  assemble,  in  Philadelphia,  in  September  of  the  same 
year.  Before  that  convention,  Mr.  Jefferson  made  an  exposition  of  tho 
rights  of  British  America,  in  which  he  said: 


'•  The  abolition  of  domestic  slavery  is  the  greatest  object  of  desire  in  these  Colo 
nies,  where  it  was  unhappily  introduced  in  their  infant'  State.  But  previous  to  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  slaves,  it  is  necessary  to  exclude  further  importations  from 
Africa.  Yet  our  repeated  attempts  to  effect  this  by  prohibitions,  and  by  imposing 
duties  which  might  amo'int  to  prohibition,  have  been  hitherto  defeated  by  his 
majei-ty's  negative  ;  thus  prfferring  the  immediate  advantage  of  a  few  African  cor 


In  the  original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  of  which  it 
is  well  known  he  was  the  author,  we  find  this  charge  against  tho  King 
of  Great  Britain  : 


SOUTHERN  TESTIMONY  AGAINST   SLAVERY  95 

<;  Ho  nas  waged  cruel  -war  against  human  nature  itself,  violating  its  most  sacred 
rights  of  life  and  liberty,  in  the  persons  of  a  distant  people  who  never  offended 
him,  captivating  and  carrying  them  into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur 
miserable  death  in  their  transportation  thither.  This  piratical  warfare,  the  oppro 
brium  of  infidel  powers,  is  the  warfare  of  the  Christian  King  of  Groat  Britain. 
Determined  to  keep  a  market  where  men  should  be  bought  and  sold,  he  has  at 
length  prostituted  his  negative  for  suppressing  any  legislative  attempt  to  prohibit 
and  restrain  this  execrable  commerce." 

Hear  him  further ;  he  says : 

"We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created  equal;  that 
they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights ;  that  among 
these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  :  that  to  secure  these  rights, 
governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  con 
sent  of  the  governed." 

Under  date  of  August  7th,  1785,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Price,  of  London, 
he  says : 

"Northward  of  the  Chesapeake  you  may  find,  here  and  there,  an  opponent  of 
your  doctrine,  as  you  may  find,  here  and  there,  a  robber  and  murderer;  but  in  no 
great  number.  Emancipation  is  put  into  such  a  train,  that  in  a  few  years  there 
will  be  no  slaves  northward  of  Maryland.  In  Maryland  I  do  not  find  such  a  dispo 
sition  to  begin  the  redress  of  this  enormity,  as  in  Virginia.  This  is  the  next  State 
to  which  we  may  turn  our  eyes  for  the  interesting  spectacle  of  justice  in  conflict 
with  avarice  arid  oppression;  a  conflict  wherein  the  sacred  side  is  gaining  daily 
recruits  from  the  influx  into  office  of  young  men  grown  up,  and  growing  up.  These 
have  sucked  in  the  principles  of  liberty,  as  it  were,  with  their  mother's  milk  ;  and 
it  is  to  them  I  look  with  anxiety  to  turn  the  fate  of  the  question." 

In  another  letter,  written  to  a  friend  in  1814,  he  made  use  of  the  fol 
lowing  language : 

"  Your  favor  of  July  31st  was  duly  received,  and  read  with  peculiar  pleasure. 
The  sentiments  do  honor  to  the  head  and  heart  of  the  writer.  Mine  on  the  subject 
of  the  slavery  of  negroes  have  long  since  been  in  the  possession  of  the  public,  and 
time  has  only  served  to  give  them  stronger  root.  The  love  of  justice  and  the  love 
of  country  plead  equally  the  cause  of  these  people,  and  it  is  a  reproach  to  us  that 
they  should  have  pleaded  it  so  long;  in  vain." 

Again,  he  says : 

"What  an  incomprehensible  machine  is  man!  who  can  endure  toil,  famine, 
stripes,  imprisonment,  arid  death  itself,  in  vindication  of  his  own  liberty ;  and  the 
next  moment  be  deaf  to  all  those  motives  whose  power  supported  him  through  his 
trial,  and  inflict  on  his  fellow  man  a  bondage,  one  hour  of  which  is  fraught  with 
more  misery  than  ages  of  that  which  he  rose  in  rebellion  to  oppose." 

Throughout  the  South,  at  the  present  day,  especially  among  slave 
holders,  negroes  are  almost  invariably  spoken  of  as  "goods  and  chat 
tels,"  "property,"  "  human  cattle."  In  our  first  quotation  from  Jeffer 
son's  works,  we  have  seen  that  he  spoke  of  the  hlacks  as  citizens.  We 
shall  now  hear  him  speak  of  them  as  brethren.  He  says : 

"  We  must  wait  with  patience  the  workings  of  an  overruling  Providence,  and  hopo 
that  that  is  preparing  the  deliverance  of  these  our  brethren.  When  the  measure 
of  their  tears  shall  be  full,  when  their  groans  shall  have  involved  Heaven  itself  in 
darkness,  doubtless  a  God  of  justice  will  awaken  to  their  distress.  Nothing  is  mor* 
certainly  written  in  the  Book  of  Fate,  than  that  this  people  shall  be  free." 


96  SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY   AGAINST   SLAVERY. 

In  a  letter  to  James  Ileaton,  on  this  same  subject,  dated  May  20, 1826, 
only  six  weeks  before  his  death,  he  says : 

"  My  sentiments  have  been  forty  years  before  the  public.  Had  I  repeated 
them  forty  times,  they  would  havo  only  become  the  more  stale  and  thread 
bare.  Although  I  shall  not  live  to  see  them  consummated,  they  will  not  dio 
with  rae," 

From  the  Father  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  we  now  turn  to 
Uio  Father  of  the  Constitution.  We  will  listen  to 

THE   VOICE   OF   MADISON. 

In  the  Convention  that  drafted  the  Constitution,  Mr.  Madison 

"  Thought  it  wrong  to  admit  in  the  Constitution  the  idea  that  there  could  be 
property  in  men." 

Advocating  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  as  we  find  in  the  42d  No. 
of  the  Federalist,  he  said  : 

"  It  were,  doubtless,  to  be  wished,  that  the  power  of  prohibiting  the  importation 
of  slaves,  had  not  been  postponed  until  the  year  1808.  or  rather,  that  it  had  been 
suffered  to  have  immediate  operation.  But  it  is  not  difficult  to  account,  either  for 
this  restriction  on  the  general  government,  or  for  the  manner  in  which  the  whole 
clause  is  expressed.  It  ought  to  be  considered  as  a  great  point  gained  in  favor  of 
humanity,  that  a  period  of  twenty  years  may  terminate  forever  within  these  States, 
a  traffic  which  has  so  long  and  so  loudly  upbraided  the  barbarism  of  modern 
policy  ;  that  within  that  period  it  will  receive  a  considerable  discouragement  from 
the  Federal  Government,  and  may  be  totally  abolished  by  a  concurrence  of  the 
few  States  which  continue  the  unnatural  traffic,  in  the  prohibitory  example  which 
has  been  given  by  so  great  a  majority  of  the  Union." 

In  the  39th  No.  of  the  Federalist,  he  says  : 

"  The  first  question  that  offers  itself  is,  whether  the  general  form  and  aspect  of 
the  government  be  strictly  Republican.  It  is  evident  that  no  other  form  would  be 
reconcilable  with  the  genius  of  the  people  of  America,  and  with  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  Revolution,  or  with  that  honorable  determination  which  animates 
every  votary  of  freedom,  to  rest  all  our  political  experiments  on  the  capacity  of 
mankind  for  self-government." 

Again,  he  contends  that : 

"  Where  slavery  exists,  the  Republican  theory  becomes  still  more  fallacious." 

On  another  occasion,  he  says  : 

"  We  have  seen  the  mere  distinction  of  color  made,  in  the  most  enlightened 
period  of  time,  a  ground  of  the  most  oppressive  dominion  ever  exercised  by  man 
orer  man." 

THE   VOICE   OF   MONEOE. 

In  a  speech  in  the  Virginia  Convention,  Mr.  Monroe  said : 

u  We  have  found  that  this  evil  has  preyed  upon  the  very  vitals  of  the  Union,  and 
hc.s  been  prejudicial  to  all  the  States  in  which  it  has  existed." 

THE    VOICE    OF    HEXRY. 

The  eloquent  Patrick  Henry,  in  a  letter  dated  January  18, 1773,  asks  • 


SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY.  97 

"  Is  it  not  a  little  surprising  that  the  professors  of  Christianity,  whose  chief 
excellence  consists  in  softening  the  human  heart,  in  cherishing  and  improving  its 
finer  feelings,  should  encourage  a  practice  so  totally  repugnant  to  the  first  impres 
sions  of  right  and  wrong?  What  adds  to  the  wonder  is,  that  this  abominable 
practice  has  been  introduced  in  the  most  enlightened  ages.  Times  that  seem  to 
have  pretensions  to  boast  of  high  improvements  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  and 
refined  morality,  have  brought  into  general  use,  and  guarded  by  many  laws,  a 
species  of  violence  and  tyranny  which  our  more  rude  and  barbarous,  but  more 
honest  ancestors  detested.  Is  it  not  amazing  that  at  a  time  when  the  rights  of 
humanity  are  defined  and  understood  with  precision,  in  a  country  above  all  other} 
fond  of  liberty — that  in  such  an  age  and  in  such  a  country,  \ve  find  men  professing; 
a  religion  the  most  mild,  humane,  gentle,  and  generous,  adopting  such  a  principle, 
as  repugnant  to  humanity  as  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  Bibie,  and  destructive  to 
liberty?  Every  thinking,  honest  man  rejects  it  in  speculation.  How  free  in  prac 
tice  from  conscientious  motives !  Would  any  8ne  believe  that  I  am  master  of 
slaves  of  my  own  purchase  ?  I  am  drawn  along  by  the  general  inconvenience  of 
living  here  without  them.  I  will  not,  I  cannot  justify  it.  However  culpable  mj 
conduct,  I  will  so  far  pay  my  devoir  to  virtue  as  to  own  the  excellence  and  recti 
tude  of  her  precepts,  and  lament  my  want  of  conformity  to  them.  I  believe  a  time 
will  come  when  an  opportunity  will  be  offered  to  abolish  this  lamentable  evil. 
Everything  we  can  do  is  to  improve  it,  if  it  happens  in  our  day  ;  if  not,  let  us  trans 
mit  to  our  descendants,  together  with  our  slaves,  a  pity  for  their  unhappy  lot,  and 
an  abhorrence  for  slavery.  If  we  cannot  reduce  this  wished-i'or  reformation  to 
practice,  let  us  treat  the  unhappy  victims  with  lenity.  It  is  the  furthest  advance 
we  can  make  toward  justice.  It  is  a  debt  we  owe  to  the  purity  of  our  religion, 
to  show  that  it  is  at  variance  with  that  law  which  warrants  sla*<ery." 

Again,  this  great  orator  says 

"  It  would  rejoice  my  very  soul,  that  every  one  of  niy  fellow-beings  was  eman 
cipated.  We  ought  to  lament  and  deplore  the  necessity  of  holding  our  fellow- 
men  in  bondage.  Believe  me  ;  I  shall  honor  the  Quakers  for  their  noble  efforts  to 
abolish  slavery." 

THE    VOICE    OF    RANDOLPH. 

That  very  eccentric  genius,  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  in  a  letter  to 
William  Gibbons,  in  1820,  says: 

"With  unfeigned  respect  and  regard,  and  as  sincere  a  deprecation  on  the  exten 
sion  of  slavery  and  its  horrors,  as  any  other  man,  be  him  whom  he  may,  I  am  your 
friend,  in  the  literal  sense  of  that  much  abused  word.  I  say  much  abused,  because 
it  is  applied  to  the  leagues  of  vice  and  avarice  and  ambition,  instead  of  good  will 
toward  man  from  love  of  him  who  is  the  Prince  of  Peace." 

"While  in  Congress,  he  said : 

"  Sir,  I  envy  neither  the  heart  nor  the  head  of  that  man  from  the  North  who 
rises  here  to  defend  slavery  on  principle." 

It  is  well  known  that  he  emancipated  all  his  negroes.  The  following 
lines  from  his  will  are  well  worth  perusing  and  preserving  : 

14 1  give  to  my  slaves  their  freedom,  to  which  my  conscience  tells  me  they  are 
justly  entitled.  It  has  a  long  time  been  a  matter  of  the  deepest  regret  to  me  that 
the  circumstances  under  which  I  inherited  them,  and  the  obstacles  thrown  in  the 
way  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  have  prevented  my  emancipating  them  in  my  life 
time,  which  it  is  my  full  intention  to  do  in  case  I  can  accomplish  it." 

THOMAS   M.    EANDOLPH. 

In  an  address  to  the  Virginia  Legislature,  in  1820,  Gov.  Randolph 
•aid: 

'*  We  have  been  far  outstripped  by  States  to  whom  nature  has  been  far  less 

5 


U8  SOUTHEItN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SL AVERT. 

Doimtiful.    It  is  painful  to  consider  what  might  have  been,  under  other  circum 
stances,  the  amount  of  general  wealth  in  Virginia." 

THOMAS    JEFFEKSON    EAXDOLPH. 

In  1832,  Mr.  Eandolph,  of  Alberaarle,  in  the  Legislature  of  Virginia, 
used  the  following  most  graphic  and  emphatic  language  : 

"  I  asrree  with  gentlemen  in  the  necessity  of  arming  the  State  for  internal 
defencer  I  will  unite  with  them  in  any  effort  to  restore  confidence  to  the  public 
mind,  and  to  conduce  to  the  sense  of  the  safety  of  our  wives  and  pur  children. 
Yet,  sir,  I  must  ask  upon  whom  is  to  fall  the  burden  of  this  defence  ?  Not  upon 
the  lordly  masters  of  their  hundred  slaves,  who  will  never  turn  out  except  to  retire 
with  their  families  when  danger  threatens.  No,  sir ;  it  is  to  fall  upon  the  less 
wealthy  class  of  our  citizens,  chiefly  upon  the  non-slaveholder.  I  have  known 
patrols  turned  out  when  there  was  not  a  slaveholder  among  them  ;  and  this  is  the 
practice  of  the  country.  I  have  slept  in  times  of  alarm  quiet  in  bed,  without  having 
a  thought  of  care,  while  these  individuals,  owning  none  of  this  property  themselves, 
were  patrolling  under  a  compulsory  process,  for  a  pittance  of  seventy-live  cents 
for  twelve  hours,  the  very  curtilage  of  my  house,  and  guarding  that  property  which 
was  alike  dangerous  to  them  and  myself.  After  all,  this  is  but  an  expedient.  As 
this  population  becomes  more  numerous,  it  becomes  less  productive.  Your  guard 
must  be  increased,  until  finally  its  profits  will  not  pay  for  the  expense  of  its  sub 
jection.  Slavery  has  the  effect  of  lessening  the  free  population  of  a  country. 

"  The  gentleman  has  spoken  of  the  increase  of  the  female  slaves  being  a  part  of 
the  profit.  It  is  admitted  ;  but  no  great  evil  can  be  averted,  no  good  attained, 
without  some  inconvenience.  It  may  be  questioned  how  far  it  is  desirable  to  fos 
ter  and  encourage  this  branch  of  profit.  It  is  a  practice,  and  an  increasing  prac 
tice,  in  parts  of  Virginia,  to  rear  slaves  for  market.  How  can  an  honorable  mind, 
a  patriot,  and  a  lover  of  his  country,  bear  to  see  this  Ancient  Dominion,  rendered 
illustrious  by  the  noble  devotion  and  patriotism  of  her  sons  in  the  cause  of  liberty, 
converted  into  one  grand  menagerie,  where  men  are  to  be  reared  for  the  market, 
like  oxen  for  the  shambles?  Is  it  better,  is  it  not  worse,  than  the  slave  trade — that 
trade  which  enlisted  the  labor  of  the  good  and  wise  of  every  creed,  and  every  clime, 
to  abolish  it  ?  The  trader  receives  the  slave,  a  stranger  in  language,  aspect,  and 
manners,  from  the  merchant  who  has  brought  him  from  the  interior.  The  ties  of 
father,  mother,  husband,  and  child,  have  all  been  rent  in  twain ;  before  he  receives 
him,  his  soul  has  become  callous.  But  here,  sir,  individuals  whom  the  master  has 
known  from  infancy,  whom  he  has  seen  sporting  in  the  innocent  gambols  of  child 
hood,  who  have  been  accustomed  to  look  to  him  for  protection,  he  tears  from  the 
mother's  arms  and  sells  into  a  strange  country  among  strange  people,  subject  to 
cruel  taskmasters. 

"  He  has  attempted  to  justify  slavery  here,  because  it  exists  in  Africa,  and  has 
stated  that  it  exists  all  over  the  world.  Upon  the  same  principle  he  could  justify 
Mahometanism,  with  its  plurality  of  wives,  petty  wars  for  plunder,  robbery,  and 
murder,  or  any  other  of  the  abominations  and  enormities  of  savage  tribes.  Does 
slavery  exist  in  any  part  of  civilized  Europe  ?  No,  sir,  in  no  part  of  it." 

PEYTON   EANDOLPH. 

On  the  20th  of  October,  1774,  while  Congress  was  in  session  in  Phila 
delphia,  Peyton  Eandolph,  President,  the  following  resolution,  among 
others,  was  unanimously  adopted  : 

"That  we  will  neither  import  nor  purchase  any  slaves  imported  after  the  first 
day  of  December  next ;  after  which  time  we  will  wholly  discontinue  the  slave  toade. 
and  will  neither  be  concerned  in  it  ourselves,  nor  will  we  hire  our  vessels,  nor  sell 
our  commodities  or  manufactures,  to  those  who  are  concerned  in  it." 

EDMUND    EANDOLPH. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  contains  the  following  pro- 
rision : 

"  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  another  State,  under  the  laws  thereof, 
escaping  to  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  dis- 


SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVEKY.  99 

charged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party 
to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due." 

To  the  studious  attention  of  those  Vandals  who  contend  that  the 
above  provision  requires  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slavei,  we  respectfully 
commend  the  following  resolution,  which,  it  will  be  observed,  was  unani 
mously  adopted  : 

"  On  motion  of  Mr.  Randolph,  the  word  l  servitude  '  was  struck  out.  and  '  service* 
unanimously  inserted — the  former  being  thought  to  express  the  condition  of  slaves^ 
and  the  latter  the  obligation  of  free  persons." — Madison  Papers,  vol.  iii.  p.  1569. 

Well  done  for  the  Eandolphs ! 

THE    YOIOE    OF    CLAY. 

Henry  Clay,  whom  nearly  everybody  loved,  and  at  the  mention  of 
whose  name  the  American  heart  always  throbs  with  emotions  of  grate 
ful  remembrance,  said,  in  an  address  before  the  Kentucky  Colonization 
Society,  in  1829 : 

"It  is  bolieved  that  nowhere  in  the  farming  portion  of  the  United  States  would 
slave  labor  be  generally  employed,  if  the  proprietor  were  not  tempted  to  raise 
slaves  by  the  high  price  of  the  Southern  market,  which  keeps  it  up  in  his  own." 


In  the  United  States  Senate,  in  1850,  he  used  the  following  memo 
rable  words : 

"  I  am  extremely  sorry  to  hear  the  Senator  from  Mississippi  say  that  he  requires, 
first  the  extension  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  to  the  Pacific,  and  also  that  he 
is  not  satisfied  with  that,  but  requires,  if  I  understand  him  correctly,  a  positive  pro 
vision  for  the  admission  of  slavery  south  of  that  line.  And  now,  sir,  coming  from 
a  slave  State,  as  I  do,  I  owe  it  to  myself,  I  owe  it  to  truth,  I  owe  it  to  the  subject, 
to  say  that  no  earthly  power  could  induce  me  to  vote  for  a  specific  measure  for  the 
introduction  of  slavery  where  it  had  not  before  existed,  either  south  or  north  of 
that  line.  Coming  as  I  do  from  a  slave  State,  it  is  my  solemn,  deliberate  and  well- 
matured  determination  that  no  power,  no  earthly  power,  shall  compel  me  to  vote 
for  the  positive  introduction  of  slavery  either  south  or  north  of  that  line.  Sir, 
while  you  reproach,  and  justly,  too,  our  British  ancestors  for  the  introduction  of 
this  institution  upon  the  continent  of  America,  I  am,  for  one,  unwilling  that  the 
posterity  of  the  present  inhabitants  of  California  and  of  New  Mexico  shall  reproach 
us  for  doing  just  what  we  reproach  Great  Britain  for  doing  to  us.  If  the  citizens  of 
those  territories  choose  to  establish  slavery,  and  if  they  come  here  with  constitu 
tions  establishing  slavery,  I  am  for  admitting  them  with  such  provisions  in  theiv 
constitutions ;  but  then  it  will  be  their  own  work,  and  not  ours,  and  their  posterity 
will  have  to  reproach  them,  and  not  us,  for  forming  constitutions  allowing  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery  to  exist  among  them.  These  are  my  views,  sir,  and  I  choose  to 
express  them  ;  and  I  care  not  how  extensively  or  universally  they  are  known." 

Hear  him  further  ;  he  says: 

"  So  long  as  God  allows  the  vital  current  to  flow  through  my  veins,  1  will  never, 
never,  uever,  by  word  or  thought,  by  mind  or  will,  aid  in  admitting  one  rood  of  free 
territory  to  the  everlasting  curse  of  human  bondage." 

Blest  is  the  memory  of  noble  Harry  of  the  West ! 

THE   YOIOE   OF   BENTON. 

In  his  "  Thirty  Years'  View,"  Thomas  H.  Benton  says : 

"My  opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery  dates  further  back  than  1844 — 
forty  year-s  further  back ;  and  us  this  is  a  suitable  time  for  a  general  declaration,  and 


100  SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVEEY. 

a  sort  of  general  conscience  delivery,  I  will  say  that  my  opposition  to  it  dates  froaa 
1804,  when  I  WAS  a  student  at  law  in  the  State  of  Tennessee,  and  studied  the  subject 
of  African  slavery  in  an  American  book — a  Virginian  book — Tucker's  edition  of  Black- 
stone's  Commentaries." 

Again,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  St.  Louis,  on  the  3d  of  November,  1856, 
hie  says : 

"  I  look  at  white  people,  and  not  at  black  ones  ;  I  look  to  the  peace  and  reputa 
tion  of  the  race  to  which  I  belong.  I  look  to  the  peace  of  this  land — the  world's 
last  hope  fora  free  government  on  the  earth.  One  of  the  occasions  on  which  I  saw 
Henry  Clay  rise  higher  than  I  thought  I  ever  saw  him  before,  was  when  in  the  de 
bate  on  the  admission  of  California,  a  dissolution  was  apprehended  if  slavery  was 
not  carried  into  this  Territory,  where  it  never  was.  Then-Mr.  Clay  rising,  loomed 
colossally  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  as  he  rose  declaring  that  for  no  earthly 
purpose,  no  earthly  object,  could  he  carry  slavery  into  places  where  it  did  not  exist 
before.  It  was  a  great  and  proud  day  for  Mr.  Clay,  toward  the  latter  days  of  his 
life,  and  if  an  artist  could  have  been  there  to  catch  his  expression  as  he  uttered 
that  sentiment,  with  its  reflex  on  his  face,  and  his  countenance  beaming  with  linn- 
ness  of  purpose,  it  would  have  been  a  glorious  moment  in  which  to  transmit  him  to 
Posterity — his  countenance  all  alive  and  luminous  with  the  ideas  that  beat  in  his 
osom.  That  was  a  proud  day.  I  could  have  wished  that  I  had  spoken  the  same 
words.  I  speak  them  now,  telling  you  they  were  his,  and  adopting  them  as  my 
own." 

THE    VOICE    OF   MASOX. 

Colonel  Mason,  a  leading  and  distinguished  member  of  the  Convention 
that  formed  the  Constitution,  from  Virginia,  when  the  provision  for  pro 
hibiting  the  importation  of  slaves  was  under  consideration,  biiici: 

"  The  present  question  concerns  not  the  importing  States  alone,  but  the  whole 
CJnion.  Slavery  discourages  arts  and  manufactures.  The  poor  di^.pise  labor  when 
performed  by  slaves.  They  prevent  the  emigration  of  whites,  who  really  enrich  and 
strengthen  a  country.  They  produce  the  most  pernicious  effect  on  manners. 
Every  master  of  slaves  is  born  a  petty  tyrant.  They  bring  the  judgment  of  heaven 
on  a  country.  As  nations  cannot  be  rewarded  or  punished  in  the  next  world,  they 
must  be  in  this.  By  an  inevitable  chain  of  causes  and  effects.  Providence  punishes 
national  sins  by  national  calamities.  He  lamented  that  some  of  our  Eastern 
brethren  had,  from  a  lust  of  gain,  embarked  in  this  nefarioas  traffic.  As  to  the 
States  being  in  possession  of  the  right  to  import,  this  was  the  case  with  many  other 
rights  now  to  be  properly  given  up.  He  held  it  essential,  in  every  point  of  view, 
that  the  General  Government  should  have  power  to  prevent  tLe  increase  of  slavery." 

THE    VOICE    OF    MCDOWELL. 

In  1832,  Gov.  McDowell  used  this  language  in  the  Virginia  Legis 
lature  : 

"  Who  that  looks  to  this  unhappy  bondage  of  an  unhappy  people,  in  the  midst  of 
our  society,  and  thinks  of  its  incidents  or  issues,  but  weeps  over  it  as  a  curse  as 
great  upon  him  who  inflicts  it  as  upon  him  who  suffers  it?  Sir.  you  may  place  the 
slave  where  you  please— you  may  dry  up,  to  your  uttermost,  the  fountains  of  his 
feelings,  the  springs  of  his  thought — you  may  close  upon  his  mind  every  avenue  of 
knowledge,  and  cloud  it  over  with  artificial  night — you  may  yoke  him  to  vour 
labors,  as  the  ox,  which  liveth  only  to  work  and  worketh  only  to  live— you  may 
put  him  under  any  process  which,  without  destroying  his  value"  as  a  slave,  will  de 
base  and  crush  him  as  a  rational  being— you  may  do  this,  and  the  idea  that  he 
was  born  to  be  free  will  survive  it  all.  It  is  allied  to  his  hope  of  immortality— it  is 
the  ethereal  part  of  his  nature  which  oppression  cannot  rend.  It  is  a  torch  lit  up 
in  his  soul  by  the  hand  of  Deity,  and  never  meant  to  be  extinguished  by  the  hand 
of  man." 

THE    VOICE    OF    IEEDELL. 

In  the  debates  of  the  North  Carolina  Convention,  Mr.  IredolJ,  after 
wards  a  Judge  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  said  : 


SOUTHERN   TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY.  101 

•'When  tne  entire  abolition  of  slavery  takes  place,  it  will  be  an  event  which 
must  be  pleasing  to  every  generous  mind,  and  every  friend  of  human  nature." 

THE   YOICE   OF   PINKNET. 

William  Pinkney,  of  Maryland,  in  the  House  of  Delegates  in  that  State, 
in  1789,  made  several  powerful  arguments  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery.  Here  follows  a  brief  extract  from  one  of  his  speeches : 

"Iniquitous  and  most  dishonorable  to  Maryland,  is  that  dreary  system  of  partia* 
bondage  which  her  laws  have  hitherto  supported  with  a  solicitude  worthy  of  a 
better  object,  and  her  citizens,  by  their  practice  countenanced.  Founded  in  a  dis 
graceful  traffic,  to  which  the  parent  country  lent  its  fostering  aid,  from  motives  of 
interest,  but  which  even  she  would  have  disdained  to  encourage,  had  England  been 
the  destined  mart  of  such  inhuman  merchandise,  its  continuance  is  as  shameful  as 
its  origin. 

"  I  have  no  hope  that  the  stream  of  general  liberty  will  forever  flow  unpolluted 
through  the  mire  of  partial  bondage,  or  that  they  who  have  been  habituated  to  lord 
it  over  others,  will  not,  in  time,  become  base  enough  to  let  others  lord  it  over  them. 
If  they  resist,  it  will  be  the  struggle  of  pride  and  selfishness,  not  of  principle." 

THE   VOICE   OF   LEIGH. 

In  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  in  1832,  Mr.  Leigh  said : 

"I  thought  till  very  lately  that  it  was  known  to  everybody  that,  during  the  Re 
volution,  and  for  many  years  after,  the  abolition  of  slavery  was  a  favorite  topic 
with  many  of  our  ablest  statesmen,  who  entertained  with  respect  all  the  schernea 
which  wisdom  or  ingenuity  could  suggest  for  its  accomplishment." 

THE    VOICE    OF    MARSHALL. 

Thomas  Marshall,  of  Fauquier,  said,  in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  in 
1832: 

""Wherefore,  then,  object  to  slavery?     Because  it  is  ruinous  to  the  whites- 
retards  improvements,  roots  out  an  industrious  population,  banishes  the  yeomanry 
of  the  country — deprives  the  spinner,  the  weaver,  the  smith,  the  shoemaker,  tht 
carpenter,  of  employment  and  support." 

THE   VOICE   OF   EOLLHSTG. 

Philip  A.  Boiling,  of  Buckingham,  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of 
Virginia,  in  1832,  said  : 

"  The  time  will  come — and  it  may  be  sooner  than  many  are  willing  to  believe — 
when  this  oppressed  and  degraded  race  cannot  be  held  as  they  now  are — when  a 
change  will  be  effected,  abhorrent,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  you,  and  to  the  feelings  of 
every  good  man. 

"  The  wounded  adder  will  recoil,  and  sting  the  foot  that  tramples  upon  it.  The 
day  is  fast  approaching,  when  those  who  oppose  all  action  upon  this  subject,  and, 
instead  of  aiding  in  devising  some  feasible  plan  for  freeing  their  country  from  an 
acknowledged  curse,  cry  '  impossible,'  to  every  plan  suggested,  will  curse  their  per- 
versencss,  and  lament  their  folly." 

THE    VOICE    OF     "HANDLER. 

Mr.  Chandler,  of  Norfolk,  member  of  the  Virginia  Legislature,  in 
1832,  took  occasion  to  say : 

"  It  is  admitted,  by  all  who  have  addressed  this  House,  that  slavery  is  a  curse, 
and  an  increasing  one.  That  it  has  been  destructive  to  the  lives  of  our  citizens, 
history,  with  unerring  truth,  will  record.  That  its  future  increase  will  crea-,e  com 
motion,  cannot  be  doubted.' 


102  SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY"    AGAINST   SLAVEEY. 

THE   VOICE   OF   SUMMEES. 

Mr.  Summers,  of  Kanawha,  member  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia, 
in  1832,  said : 

"  The  evils  of  this  system  cannot  be  enumerated.  It  were  unnecessary  to 
attempt  it.  They  glare  upon  us  at  every  step.  When  the  owner  looks  to  hia 
wasted  estate,  he  knows  and  feels  them." 

THE    VOICE    OF    PEESTON. 

In  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  in  1832,  Mr.  Preston  said : 

"  Sir,  Mr.  Jefferson,  whose  hand  drew  the  preamble  to  the  Bill  of  Rights,  has 
eloquently  remarked  that  we  had  invoked  for  ourselves  the  benefit  of  a  pi'inciple 
which  we  had  denied  to  others.  He  saw  and  felt  that  slaves,  as  men,  were 
embraced  within  this  principle." 

THE    VOICE    OF   BIENKY. 

James  G.  Birney,  of  Kentucky,  under  whom  the  Abolitionists  first 
became  a  National  Party,  and  for  whom  they  voted  for  President  in 
1844,  giving  him  66,304  votes,  says  : 

"  I  allow  not  to  human  laws,  be  they  primary  or  secondary,  no  matter  by  what 
numbers,  or  with  what  solemnities  ordained,  the  least  semblance  of  right  to  esta 
blish  slavery,  to  make  property  of  my  fellow,  created,  equally  with  myself,  in  the 
image  of  God.  Individually,  or  as  political  communities,  men  have  no  more  right 
to  enact  slavery,  than  they  have  to  enact  murder  or  blasphemy,  or  incest  or  adul 
tery.  To  establish  slavery  is  to  dethrone  right,  to  trample  on  justice,  the  only  true 
foundation  of  government.  Governments  exist  not  for  the  destruction  of  liberty, 
but  for  its  defence  ;  not  for  the  annihilation  of  men's  rights,  but  their  preservation. 
I>o  they  incorporate  in  their  organic  law  the  element  of  injustice  ? — do  they  live  by 
admitting  it  in  practice?  Then  do  they  destroy  their  own  foundation,  and  absolve 
all  men  from  the  duty  of  allegiance,  Is  any  man  so  besotted  as,  for  a  moment,  to 
suppose  that  the  slaveholder  has  an  atom  of  right  to  his  slave  ;  as  that  the  slave 
has  resting  on  him  an  atom  of  obligation  to  obey  the  laws  that  enslave  him,  that 
rob  him  of  ever}rthing — of  himself?  No  one  ;  else  why  do  all  just  men  of  all  coun 
tries  rejoice  when  they  hear  that  the  oppressed  of  any  country  have  achieved  their 
liberty,  at  whatever  cost  to  their  tyrants  ?" 

THE   VOICE    OF    DELAWAEE 

Strong  anti-slavery  sentiments  had  become  popular  in  Delaware  as 
early  as  1785.  With  Maryland  and  Missouri,  it  may  now  be  ranked  as 
merely  a  semi-slave  State.  Mr.  McLane,  a  member  of  Congress  from  this 
State,  in  1825,  said  : 

"  I  shall  not  imitate  the  example  of  other  gentlemen  by  making  professions  of 
my  love  of  liberty  and  abhorrence  of  slaver}*,  not,  however,  because  I  do  net 
entertain  them.  1  am  an  enemy  to  slavery." 

THE    VOICE    OF    MARYLAND. 

Slavery  has  little  vitality  in  Maryland.  Baltimore,  the  greatest  city 
of  the  South — greatest  because  freest — has  a  population  of  more  than 
two  hundred  thousand  souls,  and  yet  less  than  three  thousand  of  these 
are  slaves.  In  spite  of  all  the  unjust  and  oppressive  statutes  enacted  by 
the  oligarchy,  the  non-slaveholders,  who  with  the  exception  of  a  small 
number  of  slaveholding  emancipationists,  may  in  truth  be  said  to  be  the 


TESTIMONY  AGAINST  SLAVERY.  103 

on,y  class  of  really  respectable  and  patriotic  citizens  in  the  South,  hava 
wisely  determined  that  their  noble  State  shall  bo  freed  from  tho  sin  and 
the  shame,  the  crime  and  the  curse  of  slavery  ;  and  in  accordance  with 
this  determination,  long  since  formed,  they  are  giving  every  possible 
encouragement  to  free  white  labor,  thereby,  very  properly,  rendering 
the  labor  of  slaves  both  unprofitable  and  disgraceful.  The  formation  of 
an  Abolition  Society  in  this  State,  in  1789,  was  the  result  of  the  influ 
ence  of  the  masterly  speeches  delivered  in  the  House  of  Delegates,  by 
the  Hon.  William  Pinkney,  whose  undying  testimony  we  have  already 
placed  on  record.  Nearly  seventy  years  ago,  this  eminent  lawyer  and 
statesman  declared  to  the  people  of  America,  that  if  they  did  not  mark 
out  the  bounds  of  slavery,  and  adopt  measures  for  its  total  extinction,  it 
would  finally  "  work  a  decay  of  the  spirit  of  liberty  in  the  free  States." 
Further,  he  said  that,  u  by  the  eternal  principles  of  natural  justice,  no 
master  in  the  State  has  a  right  to  hold  his  slave  in  bondage  a  single 
frour."  In  1787,  Luther  Martin,  of  this  State,  said  : 

"  Slavery  is  inconsistent  with  the  genius  of  republicanism,  and  has  a  tendency  to 
destroy  those  principles  on  which  it  is  supported,  as  it  lessens  the  sense  of  the 
eaual  rights  of  mankind,  and  habituates  us  to  tyranny  and  oppression." 

THE   YOIOE    OF    VIRGINIA. 

After  introducing  the  unreserved  and  immortal  testimony  of  "Wash 
ington,  JetFerson,  Madison,  Henry,  and  the  other  great  men  of  the  Old 
Dominion,  against  the  institution  of  slavery,  it  may,  to  some,  seem  quite 
superfluous  to  back  the  cause  of  Freedom  by  arguments  from  other  Vir 
ginia  abolitionists  ;  but  this  State,  notwithstanding  all  her  more  modern 
manners  and  inhumanity,  has  been  so  prolific  of  just  views  and  noble 
sentiments,  that  we  deem  it  eminently  fit  and  proper  to  blazon  many  of 
them  to  the  world  as  the  redeeming  features  of  her  history.  An  Aboli 
tion  Society  was  formed  in  this  State  in  1701.  In  a  memorial  which 
the  members  of  this  Society  presented  to  Congress,  they  pronounced 
slavery  u  not  only  an  odious  degradation,  but  an  outrageous  violation  of 
one  of  the  most  essential  rights  of  human  nature,  and  utterly  repugnant 
to  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel."  A  Bill  of  Eights,  unanimously  agreed 
npon  by  the  Virginia  Convention  of  June  12,  1776,  holds— 

"  That  all  men  are,  by  nature,  equally  free  and  independent ; 

u  That  Government  is,  or  ought  to  be,  instituted  for  the  common  benefit,  protec 
tion,  and  security,  of  the  People,  Nation,  or  Community ; 

u  That  elections  of  members  to  serve  as  representatives  of  the  people  in  assembly 
aught  to  be  free  ; 

41  That  all  men  having  sufficient  evidence  of  permanent  common  interest  with,  and 
Attachment  to,  the  community,  have  the  right  of  suffrage,  and  cannot  be  taxed  or 
deprived  of  their  property,  for  public  uses,  without  their  own  consent  or  that  of 
their  representatives  so  elected,  nor  bound  by  any  law  to  which  they  have  not  in 
like  manner  assented,  for  the  public  good; 

"  That  the  freedom  of  the  Press  is  one  of  the  greatest  bulwarks  of  Liberty,  and 
can  never  be  restrained  but  by  despotic  Governments  : 

"  That  no  free  Government  or  the  blessing  of  Liberty  can  be  preserve  I  to  any 
people,  but  by  a  firm  adherence  to  justice,  moderation,  toinperance,  I'rugu  ,  y.  anJ 
virtue,  and  by  a  frequent  recurrence  to  fundamental  priudpi  ;•»." 


104:  SOUTHED    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

The  "  Virginia  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery.-'  organized  in 
1791,  addressed  Congress  in  these  words: 

"  Your  memorialists,  fully  aware  that  righteousness  exalteth  a  nation,  and  that 
slavery  is  not  only  an  odious  degradation,  but  an  outrageous  violation  of  one  of  the 
most  essential  rights  of  human  nature,  and  utterly  repugnant  to  the  precepts  of 
the  Gospel,  which  breathes  '  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  men,'  lament  that  a 
practice  so  inconsistent  with  true  policy  and  the  inalienable  rights  of  men,  should 
subsist  in  so  enlightened  an  age,  and  among  a  people  professing  that  all  mankind 
are,  by  nature,  equally  entitled  to  freedom." 

THE    VOICE    OF   NOETTI   CAROLINA. 

If  the  question,  Slavery  or  No  Slavery,  could  be  fairly  presented 
for  the  decision  of  the  legal  voters  of  North  Carolina  at  the  next 
popular  election,  we  believe  that  at  least  two-thirds  of  them  would 
deposit  the  No  Slavery  ticket.  Perhaps  one-fourth  of  the  slaveholders 
themselves  would  vote  it,  for  the  slaveholders  in  this  State  are  more 
moderate,  decent,  sensible,  and  honorable,  than  the  slaveholders  in 
either  of  the  adjoining  States,  or  the  States  further  South ;  and  we  know 
that  many  of  them  are  heartily  ashamed  of  the  disreputable  occupations 
of  slaveholding  and  slave-breeding  in  which  they  are  engaged,  for  we 
have  had  the  assurance  from  many  of  their  own  lips.  As  a  matter  of 
course,  all  the  non-slaveholders,  who  are  so  greatly  in  the  majority, 
would  vote  to  suppress  the  degrading  system,  which  has  kept  them  so 
long  in  poverty  and  ignorance,  with  the  exception  of  those  who  are 
complete  automatons  to  the  beck  and  call  of  their  imperious  lords  and 
masters,  the  major-generals  of  the  oligarchy. 

How  long  shall  it  be  before  the  citizens  of  North  Carolina  shall  have 
the  privilege  of  expressing,  at  the  ballot-box,  their  true  sentiments  with 
regard  to  this  vexed  question  ?  Why  not  decide  it  at  the  next  general 
election?  Sooner  or  later,  it  must  and  will  be  decided — decided  cor 
rectly,  too — and  the  sooner  the  better.  The  first  Southern  State  that 
abolishes  slavery  will  do  herself  an  immortal  honor.  God  grant  that 
North  Carolina  may  be  that  State,  and  soon!  There  is  at  least  one 
plausible  reason  why  this  good  old  State  should  be  the  first  to  move  in 
this  important  matter,  and  we  will  state  it.  On  the  20th  of  May,  1775, 
just  one  year,  one  month  and  fourteen  days  prior  to  the  adoption  of  the 
JefFersonian  Declaration  of  Independence,  by  the  Continental  Congress 
in  Philadelphia,  July  4,  177G,  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence,  the  authorship  of  which  is  generally  attributed  to  Ephraim  Bre- 
vurd,  was  proclaimed  in  Charlotte,  Mecklenburg  county,  North  Carolina, 
and  fully  ratified  in  a  second  Convention  of  the  people  of  said  county, 
held  on  the  31st  of  the  same  month.  And  here,  by  the  way,  we  may 
remark,  that  it  is  supposed  that  Mr.  Jefferson  made  use  of  this  last-men 
tioned  document  as  the  basis  of  his  draft  of  the  indestructible  titlg-deed 
of  our  liberties.  There  is  certainly  an  identicalness  of  language  between 
the  t\vo  papers  that  is  well  calculated  to  strengthen  this  hypothesis. 


SOUTHERN'    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY.  105 

This,  however,  is  a  controversy  about  which  we  are  but  little  concerned. 
For  present  purposes,  it  is,  perhaps,  enough  for  us  to  know,  that  on 
the  20th  of  May,  1776,  when  transatlantic  tyranny  and  oppression  could 
no  longer  be  endured,  North  Carolina  set  her  sister  colonies  a  most 
valorous  and  praiseworthy  example,  and  that  they  followed  it.  To  her 
infamous  slaveholding  sisters  of  the  South,  it  is  now  meet  that  she 
should  set  another  noble  example  of  decency,  virtue,  and  independence. 
Let  her  at  once  inaugurate  a  policy  of  common  justice  and  humanity — 
enact  a  system  of  equitable  laws,  having  due  regard  to  the  rights  and 
interests  of  all  classes  of  persons,  poor  whites,  negroes,  and  nabobs,  and 
the  surrounding  States  will  ere  long  applaud  her  measures,  and  adopt 
similar  ones  for  the  governance  of  themselves. 

Another  reason,  and  a  cogent  one,  why  North  Carolina  should  aspire 
to  become  the  first  free  State  of  the  South  is  this:  The  first  slave  State 
that  makes  herself  respectable  by  casting  out  the  "mother  of  harlots," 
and  by  rendering  enterprise  and  industry  honorable,  will  immediately 
receive  a  large  accession  of  most  worthy  citizens  from  other  States  in 
the  Union,  and  thus  lay  a  broad  foundation  of  permanent  political  powei 
and  prosperity.  Intelligent  white  farmers  from  the  Middle  and  New 
England  States  will  flock  to  our  more  congenial  clime,  eager  to  give 
thirty  dollars  per  acre  for  the  very  lands  that  are  now  a  drug  in  the 
market  because  nobody  wants  them  at  the  rate  of  five  dollars  per  acre ; 
an  immediate  and  powerful  impetus  will  be  given  to  commerce,  manu 
factures,  and  all  the  industrial  arts;  science  and  literature  will  bo 
revived,  and  every  part  of  the  State  will  reverberate  with  the  triumphs 
of  manual  and  intellectual  labor. 

In  a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  we  of  North  Carolina  are,  at  this  present 
time,  worth  less  than  either  of  the  four  adjoining  States;  let  us  abolish 
slavery  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  regular  decade  of  years,  and  if  our 
example  is  not  speedily  followed,  we  shall,  on  or  before  the  4th  of  July, 
1876,  be  enabled  to  purchase  the  whole  of  Virginia  and  South  Carolina, 
including,  perhaps,  the  greater  part  of  Georgia.  An  exclusive  lease  of 
liberty  for  ten  years  would  unquestionably  make  us  the  Empire  State 
of  the  South.  But  we  have  no  disposition  to  debar  others  from  the 
enjoyment  of  liberty  or  any  other  inalienable  right ;  we  ask  no  special 
favor ;  what  we  demand  for  ourselves  we  are  willing  to  concede  to  our 
neighbors.  Hereby  we  make  application  for  a  lease  of  freedom  for 
ten  years  ;  shall  we  have  it?  May  God  enable  us  to  secure  it,  as  we 
believe  He  will.  We  give  fair  notice,  however,  that  if  we  get  it  for 
ten  years,  we  shall,  with  the  approbation  of  Heaven,  keep  it  twenty- 
forty — a  thousand— forever ! 

We.  transcribe  the  Mecklenburg  Resolutions,  which,  it  will  be  ob 
served,  acknowledge  the  '*  inherent  and  inalienable  rights  of  man,"  and 
'*«lflolare  ourselves  a  free  and  independent  people,  are,  and  of  right 


10l<  SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

ought  to  be,  a  sovereign  and  sell- governing  association,  under  the  con 
trol  of  no  power  other  than  that  of  our  God,  arid  the  general  govern, 
rneiit  of  the  Congress." 

MECKLENBURG   DECLARATION    OF    INDEPENDENCE, 

As  proclaimed  in  the  town  of  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  May  20th, 
1775,  and  ratified  by  the  County  of  Mecklenburg,  in  Convention,  May 
31st,  1775. 

"I.  Resolved — That  whosoever,  dnectly  or  indirectly,  abetted,  or  in  anyway, 
form  or  manner,  countenanced  the  unchartered  and  dangerous  invasion  of  our 
rights  as  el-aimed  by  Great  Britain,  is  an  enemy  to  this  country,  to  America,  and  to 
the  inherent  and  inalienable  rights  of  man. 

"  II.  Resolved — That  we  the' citizens  of  Mecklenburg  County,  do  hereby  dissolve 
the  political  bands  which  have  connected  us  to  the  mother  country,  and  hereby 
absolve  ourselves  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  Crown,  and  abjure  all  political 
connection,  contract  or  association  with  that  nation,  who  have  wantonly  trampled 
on  our  rights  and  liberties,  and  inhumanly  shod  the  blood  of  American  patriots  at 
Lexington. 

"  III.  Resolved — That  we  do  hereby  declare  ourselves  a  free  and  independent 
people,  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  a  sovereign  and  self-governing  association, 
under  the  control  of  no  power  other  than  that  of  our  God,  and  the  general  govern 
ment  of  the  Congress ;  to  the  maintenance  of  which  independence,  we  solemnly 
pledge  to  each  other  our  mutual  cooperation,  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  most 
eacred  honor. 

"IV.  Resolved — That  as  we  now  acknowledge  the  existence  and  control  of  no 
law  or  legal  officer,  civil  or  military,  within  this  county,  we  do  hereby  ordain  and 
adopt,  as  a  rule  of  life,  all,  each,  and  every  of  our  former  laws — wherein,  never 
theless,  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  never  can  be  considered  as  holding1  rights, 
privileges,  immunities  or  authority  therein." 

Had  it  not  been  for  slavery,  which,  with  all  its  other  blighting  and 
degrading  influences,  stifles  and  subdues  every  noble  impulse  of  the 
heart,  this  consecrated  spot  would  long  since  have  been  marked  by  an 
enduring  monument,  whose  grand  proportions  should  bear  witness  that 
the  virtues  of  a  noble  ancestry  are  gratefully  remembered  by  an  emulous 
and  appreciative  posterity.  Yet,  even  as  things  are,  we  are  not  without 
genuine  consolation.  The  star  of  hope  and  promise  is  beginning  to 
beam  brightly  over  the  long-obscured  horizon  of  the  South  ;  and  we  are 
firm  in  the  belief,  that  freedom,  wealth,  and  magnanimity,  will  soon  do 
justice  to  the  memory  of  those  fearless  patriots,  whose  fair  fame  lias 
been  suffered  to  molder  amidst  the  multifarious  abominations  of  slavery, 
poverty,  ignorance  and  grovelling  selfishness. 

In  the  Provincial  Convention  held  in  North  Carolina,  in  A'urn.'-t, 
1774,  in  which  there  were  sixty-nine  delegates,  representing  :<earh 
every  county  in  the  province,  it  was — 

"  Resolved — That  we  will  not  import  any  slave  or  slaves,  or  purchase  any  slave 
or  slaves  imported  or  brought  into  the  Province  by  others,  from  any  part  of  the 
world,  after  the  lir.5t  day  of  November  next." 

In  Iredell's  Statutes,  revised  by  Martin,  it  is  stated  that, 

"In  North  Carolina,  no  general  law  at  all  was  passed,  prior  to  the  Revolution, 
declaring  who  might  be  slaves." 


SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY'    AGAINST    SLAVERY.  107 

That  tliere  is  no  legal  slavery  in  the  Southern  States,  and  that  slavery 
tiowhere  can  be  legalized,  any  more  than  theft,  arson  or  murder  can  be 
legalized,  has  been  virtually  admitted  by  some  of  the  most  profound 
Southern  jurists  themselves  ;  and  we  will  here  digress  so  far  as  to  fur 
nish  the  testimony  of  one  or  two  eminent  lawyers,  not  of  North  Caro- 
ina,  upon  this  point. 

In  the  debate  in  the  United  States  Senate,  in  1850,  on  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill,  Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  objected  to  Mr.  Dayton's  amendment^ 
providing  for  a  trial  by  jury,  because,  said  he — 

u  A  trial  by  jury  necessarily  carries  with  it  a  trial  of  the  whole  right,  and  a  trial 
of  the  right  to  service  will  be  gone  into,  according  to  ail  the  forms  of  the  Court, 
in  determining  upon  any  other  fact.  Then,  again,  it  is  proposed,  as  a  part  of  the 
proof  to  be  adduced  at  the  hearing,  after  the  fugitive  has  been  re-captured,  that  evi 
dence  shall  be  brought  by  the  claimant  to  show  that  slavery  is  established  in  the  State 
from  which  the  fugitive  has  absconded.  Now  this  very  thing,  in  a  recent  case  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  was  required  by  one  of  the  judges  of  that  State,  which  case 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  authorities  of  Maryland,  and  against  which  they  pro 
tested.  In  that  case  the  State  judge  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  only  mode  of 
proving  it  was  by  reference  to  the  Statute  book.  Such  proof  is  required  in  the 
Senator's  amendment ;  and  if  he  means  by  this  that  proof  shall  be  brought  that 
slavery  is  established  by  existing  laws,  it  is  impossible  to  comply  with  the  requisi 
tion,  for  no  such  law  can  be  produced,  I  apprehend,  in  any  of  the  slave  States.  I 
am  not  aware  that  there  is  a  single  State  in  which  the  institution  is  established  by 
positive  law.' 

Judge  Clarke,  of  Mississippi  says : 

"  In  this  State  the  legislature  have  considered  slaves  as  reasonable  and  account 
able  beings  ;  and  it  should  be  a  stigma  upon  the  character  of  the  State,  and  a 
reproach  to  the  administration  of  justice,  if  the  life  of  a  slave  could  be  taken  with 
impunity,  or  if  he  could  be  murdered  in  cold  blood,  without  subjecting  the  offend 
er  to  the  highest  penalty  known  to  the  criminal  jurisprudence  of  the  country. 
Has  the  slave  no  rights,  because  he  is  deprived  of  his  freedom  ?  He  is  still  a 
hurnau  being,  and  possesses  all  those  rights  of  which  he  is  not  deprived  by  the 
positive  provisions  of  the  law.  The  right  of  the  master  exists  not  by  force  of  the 
law  of  nature  or  nations,  but  by  virtue  only  of  the  positive  law  of  the  State." 

The  Hon.  Judge  Kuffin,  of  North  Carolina,  says : 

"  Arguments  drawn  from  the  well-established  principles,  which  confer  and  res 
train  the  authority  of  the  parent  over  the  child,  the  tutor  over  the  pupil,  the  mas 
ter  over  the  apprentice,  have  been  pressed  on  us.  The  Court  does  not  recognize 
their  application ;  there  is  no  likeness  between  the  cases ;  they  are  in  opposition 
to  each  other,  and  there  is  an  impassable  gulf  between  them.  The  difference  is 
that  which  exists  between  freedom  and  slavery,  and  a  greater  cannot  be  imagined, 
lu  the  one,  the  end  in  view  is  the  happiness  of  the  youth,  born  to  equal  rights  with 
that  governor  on  whom  the  duty  devolves  of  training  the  young  to  usefulness  in  a 
btation  'which  he  is  afterward  to  assume  among  freemen.  To  such  an  end,  and 
wiih  such  a  subject,  moral  and  intellectual  instruction  seern  the  natural  means,  and. 
lor  the  most  part,  they  are  found  to  suffice.  Moderate  force  is  superadded  only 
to  make  tiie  others  effectual.  If  that  fail,  it  is  better  to  leave  the  party  to  his  ov\  n 
headstrong  passions,  and  the  ultimate  correction  of  the  law,  than  to  allow  it  to  be 
immoderately  inflicted  by  a  private  person.  With  slavery  it  is  far  otherwise.  The 
enl  is  the  profit  of  the  master,  his  security,  and  the  public  safety;  the  subject,  one 
do  mod,  in  his  own  person  and  his  posterity,  to  live  without  knowledge,  and  with 
out  the  capacity  to  make  anything  his  own  and  to  toil  that  another  may  reap  the 
fruits.  What  moral  considerations  shall  be  addressed  to  such  a  being  to  convince 
him,  what  it  is  impossible  but  that  the  most  stupid  must  feel  and  know  can  never  be 
tr.u,  that  htj  is  thus  to  labor  upon  a  principle  of  natural  duty,  or  for  the  sake  of  hia 
own  personal  happiness?  Such  services  can  only  be  expected  from  one  who  has 
no  will  of  his  own ;  who  surrenders  his  will  in  implicit  obedience  to  that  of  ano 
ther.  Such  obedience  is  the  consequence  only  of  uncontrolled  authority  over  th« 
ttody.  There  ig  nothing  eiee  which  can  operate  to  produce  th<=  eSect.  The  powi 


108  SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    riLAVERY. 

of  the  master  must  be  absolute  to  render  tlie  submission  of  the  slave  perfect. 
most  freely  confess  my  sense  of  the  harshness  of  this  proposition.    I  feel  it  as 
deeply  as  any  man  can ;  and  as  a  principle   of  moral  right,   every  person  in  h;'a 
letiremeut  must  repudiate  it." 

An  esteemed  friend,  a  physician,  who  was  born  and  bred  in  Rowan 
country,  North  Carolina,  and  who  now  resides  there,  informs  us  that 
Judge  Gaston,  who  was  one  of  the  half  dozen  statesmen  whom  the 
South  has  produced  since  the  days  of  the  venerable  fathers  of  the  Repub 
lic,  was  an  avowed  abolitionist,  and  that  he  published  an  address  to  the 
people  of  North  Carolina,  delineating,  in  a  masterly  manner,  the  mate 
rial,  moral  and  social  disadvantages  of  slavery.  Where  is  that  address? 
Has  it  been  suppressed  by  the  oligarchy  ?  The  fact  that  slaveholders 
have,  from  time  to  time,  made  strenuous  efforts  to  expunge  the  senti 
ments  of  freedom  which  now  adorn  the  works  of  nobler  men  than  the 
noble  Gaston,  may,  perhaps,,  fully  account  for  the  oblivious  state  into 
which  his  patriotic  effort  seems  to  have  fallen. 

NOTE. — Three  or  four  months  after  the  above  was  published — up  to 
which  time  this  work  in  its  first  form  had  passed  through  several  edi 
tions — Prof.  Hedrick  had  the  kindness  to  hand  us  the  address,  delivered, 
many  years  ago,  before  the  Literary  Societies  of  the  University  of  North 
Carolina,  by 

Judge  Gaston,  who,  with  much  force,  says  : 

"  Disguise  the  truth  as  we  may,  and  throw  the  blame  where  we  will,  it  is  slavery 
which,  more  than  any  other  cause,  keeps  us  back  in  the  career  of  improvement. 
It  stifles  industry  and  represses  enterprise — it  is  fatal  to  economy  and  providence — 
it  discourages  skill — impairs  our  strength  as  a  community,  and  poisons  morals  at 
the  fountain  head.  How  this  evil  is  to  be  encountered,  how  subdued,  is  indeed  a 
difficult  and  delicate  inquiry,  which  this  is  not  the  time  to  examine,  nor  the  occa 
sion  to  discuss.  I  felt,  however,  that  I  could  not  discharge  my  duty,  without 
referring  to  this  siibject,  as  one  which  ought  to  engage  the  prudence,  moderation, 
and  firmness  of  those  who  sooner  or  later,  must  act  decisively  upon  it." 

In  the  course  of  an  oration  which  he  delivered  in  1830,  Benjamin 
Swairn,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  North  Carolina,  asks — 

"  Is  it  nothing  to  us,  that  seventeen  hundred  thousand  of  the  people  of  our  court- 
try  are  doomed  illegally  to  the  most  abject  and  vile  slavery  that  was  ever  tole 
rated  on  the  face  of  the  earth?  Are  Carolinians  deaf  to  the  piercing  cries  oj 
humanity  ?  Are  they  insensible  to  the  demands  of  justice  ?  Let  any  man  of  spin) 
and  feeling  for  a  moment  cast  his  thoughts  over  the  land  of  slavery— think  of  tie 
nakedness  of  some,  the  hungry  yearnings  of  others,  the  flowing  tears  and  heaving 
sighs  of  parting  relations,  the  waitings  of  lamentation  and  woe,  the  bloody  cut  of 
the  keen  lash,  and  the  frightful  scream  that  rends  the  very  skies — and  all  this  tc 
gratify  ambition,  lust,  pride,  avarice,  vanity,  and  other  depraved  feelings  of  iho 
human  heart.  Indeed  the  worst  is  not  generally  known.  Were  all  the  miseries, 
the  horrors  of  slavery,  to  burst  at  once  into  view,  a  peal  of  sevenfold  thunder  could 
ucarce  strike  greater  alarm." 

THE    VOICE    OF   SOUTH    CAROLINA. 

Poor  South  Carolina!  Folly  is  her  nightcap;  fanaticism  is  her  day 
dream  ;  fire-eating  is  her  pastime.  She  lias  lost  her  better  judgment ; 
the  dictates  of  reason  and  philosophy  have  no  influence  upon  her 


SOUTHEKN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVEltY.  109 

actions.  Like  the  wife  who  is  pitiably  infatuated  with  a  drunken,  worth 
less  husband,  she  still  clings,  with  unabated  love,  to  the  cause  of  her 
shame,  her  misery,  and  her  degradation. 

A  Kentucl:ian  has  recently  expressed  his  opinion  of  this  State  in  the 
following  language : 

"South  Carolina  is  bringing  herself  irrecoverably  into  public  contempt.  It  is 
impossible  for  any  impartial  lover  of  his  country,  for  any  just,  thinking  man,  to 
witness  her  senseless  and  quenchless  malignancy  against  the  Union  without  the 
most  immeasurable  disgust  and  scorn.  She  is  one  vast  hot-bed  of  disunion.  Her 
people  think  and  talk  of  nothing  else.  She  is  a  festering  mass  of  treason." 

In  1854,  there  were  assessed  for  taxation  in  South  Carolina, 

Acres  of  Land  17,289,359 

Valued  at $22,836,374 

Average  value  per  acre $1  32 

At  the  same  time  there  were  in  New  Jersey, 

Acres  of  Land 5,324,800 

Valued  at $153,161,619 

Average  value  per  acre $28  76 

We  hope  the  slaveholders  will  look,  first  on  that  picture,  and  then  on 
this ;  from  one  or  the  other,  or  both,  they  may  glean  a  ray  or  two  of 
wisdom,  which,  if  duly  applied,  will  be  of  incalculable  advantage  to 
them  and  their  posterity.  We  trust,  also,  that  the  non-slaveholding 
whites  will  view,  with  discriminating  minds,  the  different  lights  and 
shades  of  these  two  pictures ;  they  are  the  parties  most  deeply  interested  ; 
and  it  is  to  them  we  look  for  the  glorious  revolution  that  is  to  result  in 
the  permanent  establishment  of  Freedom  over  the  last  lingering  ruins  of 
Slavery.  They  have  the  power  to  retrieve  the  fallen  fortunes  of  South 
.  Carolina,  to  raise  her  up  from  the  loathsome  sink  of  iniquity  into  which 
slavery  has  plunged  her,  and  to  make  her  one  of  the  most  brilliant  stars 
in  the  great  constellation  of  States.  While  their  minds  are  occupied 
with  other  considerations,  let  them  not  forget  the  difference  between 
twenty-eight  dollars  and  seve?ity-six  cents,  the  value  of  land  per  acre  in 
New  Jersey,  which  is  a  second-rate  free  State,  and  one  dollar  and  tliirty- 
tico  cents,  the  value  of  land  per  acre  in  South  Carolina,  which  is,  par 
excellence,  the  raodel  slave  State.  The  difference  between  the  two  sums 
•'s  twenty-seven  dollars  and  forty-four  cents,  which  would  amount  to 

recisely  two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  forty-four  dollars  on  every 
one  hundred  acres.  To  present  the  subject  in  another  form,  the  South 
Carolina  tract  of  land,  containing  two  hundred  acres,  is  worth  now  only 
two  hundred  and  sixty-four  dollars,  and  is  depreciating  every  day.  Let 
slavery  be  abolished,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  the  same  tract 
will  be  worth  five  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty-two  dollars,  with  an 
upward  tendency.  At  this  rate,  the  increment  of  value  on  the  total 
area  of  the  State  will  amount  to  more  than  three  times  as  ranch  as>  the 
estimated  value  of  the  slaves ! 


110  SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVERY. 

South  Carolina  has  not  always  been,  nor  will  she  always  continue  t« 
be,  on  the  wrong  side.  From  Ramsay's  History  of  the  State,  we  learn 
that,  in  1774,  she 

"Resolved — That  his  majesty's  subjects  in  North  America  (without  respect  to 
:olor  or  other  accidents)  are  entitled  to  all  the  inherent  rights  and  liberties  of  his 
natural  bora  subjects  within  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  ;  that  it  is  their  funda 
mental  right,  that  no  man  should  suffer  in  his  person  or  property  without  a  fair 
trial,  and  judgment  given  by  his  peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the  land." 

During  the  Revolution,  when  Baron  de  Kalb  met  General  Francis 
Marion,  the  former  expressed  amazement  that  so  many  "South  Caro 
linians  were  running  to  take  British  protection."  Marion  replied : 

"  The  people  of  Carolina  form  two  classes,  the  rich  and  the  poor.  The  poor  are 
very  poor ;  the  rich,  who  have  slaves  to  dp  all  their  work,  give  them  no  employ 
ment.  Unsupported  by  the  rich,  they  continue  poor  and  low-spirited.  The  iittio 
they  got  is  laid  out  in  brand}',  not  in  books  and  newspapers;  hence  they  know  no 
thing  of  the  comparative  blessings  of  our  country,  or  of  the  dangers  which  threaten 
it ;  therefore  they  care  nothing  about  it.  The  rich  are  generally  very  rich ;  afraid 
to  stir  lest  the  British  should  burn  their  houses,  and  carry  off  their  negroes." 

After  the  war,  he  estimated  that  "poor  Carolina  lost,  through  her 
ignorance,  $15,000,000  ;  for  ignorance  begat  toryism,  and  toryism  begat 
losses.'1  In  regard  to  the  importance  of  educating  the  people,  he  said : 

"Look  at  the  people  of  New  England.  Religion  has  taught  them  that  God 
created  men  to  be  happy  ;  to  be  happy  they  must  have  virtue  ;  that  virtue  is  not  to 
be  attained  without  knowledge  ;  nor  knowledge  without  instruction  :  nor  public 
instruction  without  free  schools;  nor  free  schools  without  legislative  order." 

One  of  her  early  writers,  under  the  nom  de  plume  of  Philodemus,  in 
a  political  pamphlet  published  in  Charleston  in  1784,  declares  tha1> 

"  Such  is  the  fatal  influence  of  slavery  on  the  human  mind,  that  it  aimos\ 
wholly  effaces  from  it  even  the  boasted  characteristic  of  rationality." 

This  same  writer,  speaking  of  the  particular  interests  of  South  Caro 
lina,  says: 

"It  has  been  too  common  with  us  to  search  the  records  of  other  nations,  to 
find  precedents  that  may  give  sanction  to  our  own  errors,  and  lead  us  unwarily 
into  confusion  and  ruin.  It  is  our  business  to  consult  their  histories,  not  with  a 
view  to  tread  right  or  wrong  in  their  steps,  but  in  order  to  investigate  the  real 
sources  of  the  mischiefs  that  have  befallen  them,  and  to  endeavor  to  escape  the 
rocks  which  they  have  all  unfortunately  split  upon.  It  is  paying  ourselves  but  a 
poor  compliment,  to  say  that  we  are  incapable  of  profiting  by  others,  and  that, 
with  all  the  information  Avhich  is  to  be  derived  from  their  fatal  experience,  it  is  in 
vain  for  us  to  attempt  to  excel  them.  If,  with  all  the  peculiar  advantages  of  our 

S resent  situation,  we  are  incapable  of  surpassing  our  predecessors,  we  inr.st  be  a 
egeuerate  race  indeed,  and  quite  unworthy  of  those  singular  bounties  of  Heaven, 
which  we  are  so  unskilled  or  undesirous  to  turn  to  our  benefit." 

A  recent  number  of  Frazer's  Magazine  contains  a  well-timed  and 
well- written  article  from  the  pen  of  vYilliam  Henry  Hurlbut  of  this 
State ;  and  from  it  we  make  the  following  extract  : 

"  As  all  sagacious  observers  of  the  operation  of  the  system  of  slavery  have 
demonstrated,  the  profitable  employment  of  slave-labor  is  inconsistent  with  the 
development  of  agricultural  science,  and  demands  a  continual  supply  of  new  and 
unexhausted  soil.  The  slaveholder,  investing  his  capital  in  the  purchase  of  the 
laborers  -themselves,  and  not  merely  in  soil  and  machines,  paying  his  free  laborers 
out  of  the  proiit.  must  depend  for  his  continued  and  progressive  prosperity  upon 
the  cheapness  and  facility  with  which  he  can  transfer  his  slaves  to  fresh  and  fertile 
lands.  Au  8»uv-,  tun;is  additional  item,  namely  the  price  of  skives,  being  added  to 


SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY   AGAINST    SLAVERY.  Ill 

the  cost  of  production,  all  other  elements  of  that  cost  require  to  be  proportionality 
smaller,  or  profits  fail." 

In  an  address  delivered  Lefore  the  South  Carolina  Institute,  in  Char 
leston,  November  20th,  1856,  Mr.  B.  F.  Perry,  of  Greenville,  truthfully 
says : 

"It  has  been  South  Carolina's  misfortune,  in  this  utilitarian  age,  to  have  her 
greatest  talents  and  most  powerful  energies  directed  to  pursuits,  which  avail  hei 
nothing,  in  the  way  of  wealth  and  prosperity.  In  the  first  settlement  of  a  new 
country,  agricultural  industry  necessarily  absorbs  all  the  time  and  occupation  of  its 
inhabitants.  They  must  clear  the  forests  and  cultivate  the  earth,  in  order  to  make 
their  bread.  This  is  their  first  consideration.  Then  the  mechanical  arts  and 
manufactures,  and  commerce,  must  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  agriculture,  to  insure 
either  individual  or  national  prosperity.  No  people  can  be  highly  prosperous 
without  them.  No  people  ever  have  been.  Agriculture,  alone,  will  not  make  or 
sustain  a  great  people.  The  true  policy  of  every  people  is  to  cultivate  the  earth, 
manufacture  its  products,  and  send  them  abroad,  in  exchange  for  those  comforts 
and  luxuries,  and  necessaries,  which  their  own  country  and  their  own  industry 
cannot  give  or  make.  The  dependence  of  South  Carolina  on  Europe  and  the 
Northern  States  for  all  the  necessaries,  comforts  and  luxuries,  which  the  mechanic 
arts  afford,  has,  in  fact,  drained  her  of  her  wealth,  and  made  her  positively  poor, 
when  compared  with  her  sister  States  of  the  Confederacy.  It  is  at  once  mortifying 
and  alarming,  to  see  and  reflect  on  our  own  dependence  in  the  mechanic  arts  and 
manufactures,  on  strangers  and  foreigners.  In  the  Northern  States  their  highest 
talents  and  energy  have  been  diversified,  and  more  profitably  employed  in  develop 
ing  the  resources  of  the  country,  in  making  new  inventions  in  the  mechanic  arts, 
and  enriching  the  community  with  science  and  literature,  commerce  and  manufac 
tures." 

THE   VOICE   OF   GEORGIA. 

Of  the  States  strictly  Southern,  Georgia  is,  perhaps,  the  most  thrifty. 
This  prosperous  condition  of  the  State  is  mainly  ascribable  to  her  hun 
dred  thousand  free  white  laborers — more  than  eighty-three  thousand  of 
whom  are  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits.  In  few  other  slave  States 
are  the  non-slaveholders  so  little  under  the  domination  of  the  oligarchy. 
At  best,  however,  even  in  the  most  liberal  slave  States,  the  social  posi 
tion  of  the  non-slaveholding  whites  is  but  one  short  step  in  advance  of 
that  of  the  negroes  ;  and  as  there  is,  on  the  part  of  the  oligarchy,  a  con 
stantly  increasing  desire  and  effort  to  usurp  greater  power,  the  more  we 
investigate  the  subject  the  more  fully  are  we  convinced  that  nothing  but 
the  speedy  and  utter  annihilation  of  slavery  from  the  entire  nation,  can 
save  the  masses  of  white  people  in  the  Southern  States  from  ultimately 
falling  to  a  political  level  with  the  blacks — both  occupying  the  most 
abject  and  galling  condition  of  servitude  of  which  it  is  possible  for  the 
human  mind  to  conceive. 

Gen.  Oglethorpe,  under  whose  management  the  Colony  of  Georgia  was 
settled,  in  1733.  was  bitterly  opposed  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  la  a 
letter  to  Granville  Sharp,  dated  Oct.  13th,  1770,  he  says  : 

"My  friends  and  I  settled  the  Colony  of  Georgia,  and  by  charter  were  established 
trustees,  to  make  laws,  etc.  We  determined  not  to  suffer  slavery  there.  But  the 
slave  merchants  and  their  adherents  occasioned  us  not  only  much  trouble,  but  at 
last  got  the  then  government  to  favor  them.  We  would  not  suffer  slavery  (which 
is  against  ths  Gospel,  as  well  as-  the  fundamental  law  of  England)  to  be  authorized 
under  our  authority;  we  refuse, 1,  as  trustees,  to  make  a  law  permitting  such  a 
horrid  crime.  The  government,  finding  the  trustees  resolved  firmly  not  to  concur 
with  what  they  believed  unjust,  took  away  the  charter  by  which  no  law  could  bo 
without  our  consent." 


112  SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY    AGAINST    SLAVEEY. 

On  the  12th  of  January,  1775,  in  indorsing  the  proceedings  of  the  first 
American  Congress,  among  other  resolutions,  "  the  Representatives  oi 
the  extensive  District  of  Darien,  in  the  Colony  of  Georgia,"  adopted  the 
following : 

u  5.  To  show  the  world  that  we  are  not  influenced  by  any  contracted  or  interested 
motives,  but  a  general  philanthropy  for  all  mankind,  of  whatever  climate,  language 
or  complexion,  we  hereby  declare  our  disapprobation  and  abhorrence  of  the  unna 
tural  practice  of  slavery  in  America  (however  the  uncultivated  state  of  our  country 
or  other  specious  arguments  may  plead  for  it),  a  practice  founded  in  injustice  and 
cruelty,  and  highly  dangerous  to  our  liberties  (as  well  as  lives),  debasing  part  of 
our  fellow  creatures  below  men,  and  corrupting  the  virtue  and  morals  of  the  rest ; 
and  is  laying  the  basis  of  that  liberty  we  contended  for  (and  Avhich  we  pray  the 
Almighty  to  continue  to  the  latest  posterity),  upon  a  very  wrong  foundation.  Wo 
therefore  resolve,  at  all  times,  to  use  our  utmost  endeavors  for  the  manumission  of 
our  slaves  in  this  Colony,  upon  the  most  safe  and  equitable  footing  for  the  masters 
and  themselves." 

The  Hon.  Mr.  Reid,  of  this  State,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  Congress, 
Feb.  1,  1820,  says  : 

"  I  am  not  the  panegyrist  of  slavery.  It  is  an  unnatural  state,  a  dark  cloud, 
which  obscures  half  the  lustre  of  our  free  institutions.  For  my  own  part,  though 
surrounded  by  slavery  from  my  cradle  to  the  present  moment,  yet — 

"  '  I  hate  the  touch  of  servile  hands, 

I  loathe  the  slaves  who  cringe  around.'  " 

As  an  accompaniment  to  those  lines,  he  might  have  uttered  these : 

44  I  would  not  have  a  slave  to  till  my  ground ; 
To  carry  me,  to  fan  me  while  I  sleep 
And  tremble  when  I  wake,  for  all  the  wealth 
That  sinews  bought  and  sold  have  ever  earned." 

Thus  have  we  presented  a  comprehensive  summary  of  the  most  une 
quivocal  and  irrefragable  testimony  of  the  South  against  the  iniquitous 
institution  of  human  slavery.  What  more  can  we  say  ?  What  more  can 
we  do  ?  We  might  fill  a  folio  volume  with  similar  extracts  ;  but  we  must 
forego  the  task ;  the  remainder  of  our  space  must  be  occupied  with  other 
arguments.  In  the  foregoing  excerpts  is  revealed  to  us,  in  language  too 
plain  to  be  misunderstood,  the  important  fact  that  every  truly  great  and 
good  man  the  South  has  ever  produced,  has,  with  hopeful  confidence, 
looked  forward  to  the  time  when  this  entire  Continent  shall  be  redeemed 
from  the  crime  and  the  curse  of  slavery.  Our  noble  self-sacrificing  fore 
fathers  have  performed,  their  part,  and  performed  it  well.  They  have 
laid  us  a  foundation  as  enduring  as  the  earth  itself ;  in  their  dying  mo 
ments  they  admonished  us  to  carry  out  their  designs  in  the  upbuilding 
and  completion  of  the  superstructure.  Let  us  obey  their  patriotic  injunc 
tions. 

From  each  of  the  six  original  Southern  States  we  have  introduced  the 
most  ardent  aspirations  for  liberty — the  most  positive  condemnations  of 
slavery.  From  each  of  the  nine  slave  States  which  have  been  admitted 
into  the  Union  since  the  organization  of  the  General  Government,  wo 
could  introduce,  from  several  of  their  wisest  and  best  citizens,  anti 


SOUTHERN    TESTIMONY   AGAINST    SLAVERY.  113 

slavery  sentiments  equally  as  strong  and  convincing  as  those  that  ema 
nated  from  the  great  founders  of  our  movement — Washington,  Jefferson, 
Madison,  Patrick  Henry  and  the  Eandolphs.  As  we  have  already 
remarked,  however,  the  limits  of  this  chapter  will  not  admit  of  the 
introduction  of  additional  testimony  from  either  of  the  old  or  new  slave 
States. 

T  ,e  reader  will  not  fail  to  observe  that,  in  presenting  these  solid  aboli 
tion  doctrines  of  the  South,  we  have  been  careful  to  make  such  quota 
tions  as  triumphantly  refute,  in  every  particular,  the  more  specious 
sophistries  of  the  oligarchy. 

The  mention  of  the  illustrious  names  above,  reminds  us  of  the  fact, 
that  many  of  the  party  newspapers,  whose  venal  columns  are  eternally 
teeming  with  vituperation  and  slander,  have  long  assured  us  that  the 
Whig  ship  was  to  be  steered  by  the  Washington  rudder,  that  the  Demo 
cratic  bark  was  to  sail  with  the  Jefferson  compass,  and  that  the  Know- 
Nothing  brig  was  to  carry  the  Madison  chart.  Imposed  upon  by  these 
monstrous  falsehoods,  we  have,  from  time  to  time,  been  induced  to 
engage  passage  on  each  of  these  corrupt  and  rickety  old  hulks ;  but,  in 
every  instance,  we  have  been  basely  swamped  in  the  sea  of  slavery,  and 
are  alone  indebted  for  our  lives  to  the  kindness  of  Heaven  and  the  art 
of  swimming.  Washington  the  founder  of  the  Whig  party  !  Jefferson 
the  founder  of  the  Democratic  party  !  Voltaire  the  founder  of  Christ 
ianity  !  How  absurd !  God  forbid  that  man's  heart  should  always 
continue  to  be  the  citadel  of  deception — that  he  should  ever  be  to  others 
the  antipode  of  what  he  is  to  himself. 

There  is  now  in  this  country  but  one  well-organized  party  that  pro 
mises,  in  good  faith,  to  put  in  practice  the  principles  of  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  and  the  other  venerable  Fathers  of  the  Kepublic- 
the  Republican  party.  To  this  party  we  pledge  unswerving  allegiance, 
so  long  as  it  shall  continue  to  pursue  the  statism  advocated  by  the  great 
political  prototypes  above-mentioned,  but  no  longer.  We  believe  it  is, 
as  it  ought  to  be,  the  desire,  the  determination,  and  the  destiny  of  this 
party,  to  give  the  death-blow  to  slavery ;  should  future  developments 
prove  the  party  at  variance  with  this  belief — a  belief,  by  the  by,  which 
it  has  recently  inspired  in  the  breasts  of  little  less  than  one  and  a  half 
million  of  the  most  intelligent  and  patriotic  voters  in  America — we  shall 
shake  off  the  dust  of  our  feet  against  it,  and  join  one  that  will,  in  a 
summary  manner,  extirpate  the  intolerable  grievance. 


OHAPTEE IV. 

NOBTHEEN    TESTIMONY. 

Slavery  must  fall,  because  it  stands  in  direct  hostility  to  all  the  grand  movements,  piled- 
pies,  and  reforms  of  our  age,  because  it  stands  in  the  way  of  an  advancing  world.  One  great 
idea  stands  out  amidst  the  discoveries  and  improvements  of  modern  times.  It  is,  that  man  is 
not  to  exercise  arbitrary,  irresponsible  power  over  man.  To  restrain  power,  to  divide  and 
balance  it,  to  create  responsibility  for  its  just  use,  to  secure  the  individual  against  its  abuse, 
to  substitute  law  for  private  will,  to  shield  the  weak  from  the  strong,  to  give  to  the  injured 
tl*e  means  of  redress,  to  set  a  fence  round  every  man's  property  and  rights,  in  a  word,  to 
secure  liberty, — such,  under  various  expressions,  is  the  great  object  on  which  philosophers, 
patriots,  philanthropists,  have  long  fixed  their  thoughts  and  hopes. — CUANNING. 

THE  best  evidence  that  can  be  given  of  the  enlightened  patriotism 
and  love  of  liberty  in  the  free  States,  is  the  fact  that,  at  the  Presiden 
tial  election  in  1856,  they  polled  thirteen  hundred  thousand  votes  for  the 
Republican  candidate,  JOHN  0.  FEEMONT.  This  fact  of  itself  seems  to 
preclude  the  necessity  of  strengthening  our  cause  with  the  individual 
testimony  of  even  their  greatest  men.  Having,  however,  adduced  the 
most  cogent  and  conclusive  anti-slavery  arguments  from  the  Washing- 
tons,  the  Jeffersons,  the  Madisons,  the  Randolphs,  and  the  Clays  of  the 
South,  we  shall  now  proceed  to  enrich  our  pages  with  gems  of 
Liberty  from  the  Franklins,  the  Hamiltons,  the  Jays,  the  Adamses,  and 
the  Websters  of  the  North.  Too  close  attention  cannot  be  paid  to  the 
words  of  wisdom  which  we  have  extracted  from  the  works  of  these 
truly  eminent  and  philosophic  statesmen.  We  will  first  listen  to 

THE    VOICE    OF   F2ANKLIN. 

Dr.  Franklin  was  the  first  president  of  "  The  Pennsylvania  Society 
for  promoting  the  Abolition  of  Slavery ;"  and  it  is  now  generally  con 
ceded  that  this  was  the  first  regularly  organized  American  abolition 
Society — it  having  been  formed  as  early  as  1774,  while  we  were  yet  sub 
jects  of  the  British  government.  In  1790,  in  the  name  and  on  behalf 
of  this  Society,  Dr.  Franklin,  who  was  then  within  a  few  months  of  tho 
close  of  his  life,  drafted  a  memorial  "to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  of  the  United  States,"  in  which  he  said : 

"Your  memorialists,  particularly  engaged  in  attending  to  the  distresses  arising 
from  slavery,  believe  it  to  be  their  indispensable  duty  to  present  this  subject  to 
your  notice.  They  have  observed,  with  real  satisfaction,  that  many  important  and 
salutary  powers  are  vested  in  you,  for  '  promoting  the  welfare  and  securing  the 
blessings  of  liberty  to  the  people  of  the  United  States ;'  and  as  they  conceive  that 

114 


NORTHERN   TESTIMONY.  115 

these  blessings  ought  rightfully  to  be  administered,  without  distinction  of  color,  to 
all  descriptions  of  people,  so  they  indulge  themselves  in  the  pleasing  expectation 
that  nothing  which  can  be  done  for  the  relief  of  the  unhappy  objects  of  their  care, 
will  be  either  omitted  or  delayed. 

From  a  persuasion  that  equal  liberty  was  originally  the  portion,  and  is  still  the 
birthright  of  all  men,  and  influenced  by  the  strong  ties  of  humanity  and  the  princi 
ples  of  their  institution,  your  memorialists  conceive  themselves  bound  to  use  all 
justifiable  endeavors  to  loosen  the  bonds  of  slavery,  and  promote  a  general  enjoy 
ment  of  the  blessings  of  freedom.  Under  these  impressions,  they  earnestly  entreat 
your  attention  to  the  subject  of  slavery  ;  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  countenance 
the  restoration  to  liberty  of  those  unhappy  men,  who,  alone,  in  this  land  of  free 
dom,  are  degraded  into  perpetual  bondage,  and  who,  amid  the  general  joy  of  sur 
rounding  freemen,  are  groaning  in  servile  subjection ;  that  you  will  devise  means 
for  removing  this  inconsistency  of  character  from  the  American  people  ;  that  you 
will  promote  mercy  and  justice  toward  this  distressed  race  ;  arid  that  you  will  step 
to  the  very  verge  of  the  power  vested  in  you  for  disc  o-ar  aging  every  species  of  traffic 
in  the  persons  of  our  fellow-men." 

On  another  occasion,  he  says : 

"  Slavery  is  an  atrocious  debasement  of  human  nature." 

THE    VOICE    OF    HAMILTON. 

Alexander  Hamilton,  the  brilliant  statesman  and  financier,  tells  us 
that — 

"  The  sacred  rights  of  mankind  are  not  to  be  rummaged  for  among  old  parch 
ments  or  musty  records.  They  are  written  as  with  a  sunbeam,  in  the  w hole  volume 
of  human  nature,  by  the  hand  of  Divinity  itself,  and  can  never  be  erased  or  ob 
scured  by  mortal  power." 

Again,  in  1774,  addressing  himself  to  an  American  Tory,  he  says : 

"  The  fundamental  source  of  all  your  errors,  sophisms,  and  false  reasonings,  is  a 
total  ignorance  of  the  natural  rights  of  mankind.  Were  you  once  to  become 
acquainted  with  these,  you  could  never  entertain  a  thought,  that  all  men  are  not, 
by  nature,  entitled  to  equal  privileges.  You  would  be  convinced  that  natural 
liberty  is  the  gift  of  the  beneficent  Creator  to  the  whole  human  race ;  and  that 
sivil  liberty  is  founded  on  that." 

THE   VOICE    OF   JAY. 

John  Jay,  first  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  under  the  Constitu 
tion  of  1789,  in  a  letter  to  the  Hon.  Elias  Boudinot,  dated  November  17, 
1819,  says: 

"  Little  can  be  added  to  what  has  been  said  and  written  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
I  concur  in  the  opinion  that  1!.  ought  not  to  be  introduced  nor  permitted  in  any  of 
the  new  States,  and  that  it  ouy-it  to  be  gradually  diminished  and  finally  abolished 
in  all  of  them. 

"  To  me,  the  constitutional  authority  of  the  Congress  to  prohibit  the  migration 
and  importation  of  slaves  into  any  of  the  States,  does  not  appear  questionable. 

4i  The  first  article  of  the  Constitution  specifies  the  legislative  powers  committed 
to  the  Congress.  The  9th  section  of  that  article  has  these  words  :  *  The  migration 
or  importation  of  such  persons  as  any  of  the  now-existing  States  »:hall  think  proper 
to  admit,  shall  not  be  prohibited  by  the  Congress  prior  to  the  year  1SOS,  but  a  tax 
or  duty  may  be  imposed  on  such  importation,  not  exceeding  ten  dollars  for  each 
person.' 

u  I  understand  the  sense  and  meaning  of  this  clause  to  be,  that  the  power  of  the 
Congress,  although  competent  to  prohibit  such  migration  and  importation,  was  to 
be  exercised  with  respect  to  the  then  existing  States,  and  them  only,  until  the  year 
1£08,  but  the  Congress  were  at  liberty  to  make  such  prohibitions  as  to  any  new 
State,  which  might  in  the  mean  time  be  established.  And  further,  that  from  and 
after  that  period,  they  were  authorized  to  make  such  prohibitions  as  to  all  the 
States,  whether  neio  or  old. 

"  It  will,  I  presume,  be  admitted,  that  slaves  were  the  persons  intended.  The 
word  slaves  was  avoided,  probably  <  n  account  of  the  existing  toleration  of  slavery 


116  NORTHERN   TESTIMONY. 

and  its  discordancy  with  the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  and  from  a  consciousness 
of  its  being  repugnant  to  the  following  positions  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence : 
*  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  that  all  men  are  created  equal ;  that  they 
are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among  these 
are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

In  a  previous  letter,  written  from  Spain,  whither  he  had  been 
appointed  as  minister  plenipotentiary,  he  says,  speaking  of  the  abolition 
of  slavery  : 

"  Till  America  comes  into  this  measure,  her  prayers  to  Heaven  will  be  impious. 
This  is  a  strong  expression,  but  it  is  just.  I  believe  that  God  governs  the  world, 
and  I  believe  it  to  be  a  maxim  in  His,  as  in  our  courts,  that  those  who  ask  for 
equity  ought  to  do  it." 

WILLIAM  JAY. 

The  Hon.  Wm.  Jay,  a  noble  son  of  Chief  Justice  John  Jay,  says  : 

"  A  crisis  has  arrived  in  which  we  must  maintain  our  rights,  or  surrender  tiiem 
forever.  I  speak  not  to  abolitionists  alone,  but  to  all  who  value  the  liberty  our 
fathers  achieved.  Do  you  ask  Avhat  we  have  to  do  with  slavery  ?  Let  our  muzzled 
presses  answer — let  the  mobs  excited  against  us  by  the  merchants  and  politicians 
answer — let  the  gag  laAvs  threatened  by  our  governors  and  legislatures  answer — 
let  the  conduct  of  the  National  Government  answer." 

THE   VOICE   OF    ADAMS. 

From  the  Diary  of  John  Quiiicy  Adams,  "the  old  man  eloquent,"  we 
make  the  following  extract : 

"  It  is  among  the  evils  of  slavery,  that  it  taints  the  very  sources  of  moral  princi 
ple.  It  establishes  false  estimates  of  virtue  and  vice  ;  for  what  can  be  more  false 
and  more  heartless  than  this  doctrine,  which  makes  the  first  and  holiest  rights  of 
humanity  to  depend  upon  the  color  of  the  skin?  It  perverts  human  reason,  and 
induces  men  endowed  with  logical  powers  to  maintain  that  slavery  is  sanctioned 
by  the  Christian  religion  ;  that  slaves  are  happy  and  contented  in  their  condition  ; 
that  between  master  and  slave  there  are  ties  of  mutual  attachment  and  affection ; 
that  the  virtues  of  the  master  are  refined  and  exalted  by  the  degradation  of  the 
slave,  while  at  the  same  time  they  vent  execrations  upon  the  slave  trade,  curse 
Britain  for  having  given  them  slaves,  burn  at  the  stake  negroes  convicted  of  crimes, 
for  the  terror  of  the  example,  and  writhe  in  agonies  of  fear  at  the  verv  mention  of 
human  rights  as  applicable  to  men  of  color." 

THE   VOICE    OF    WEBSTEE. 

In  a  speech  which  he  delivered  at  Niblo's  Garden,  in  the  city  of  ^s"ew 
York,  on  the  I5th  of  March,  1837,  Daniel  Webster,  the  Great  Expounder 
of  the  Constitution,  said  : 

"  On  the  general  question  of  slavery,  a  grest  part  of  the  community  is  already 
strongly  excited.  The  subject  has  not  only  attracted  attention  as  a  question  of 
politics,  but  it  has  struck  a  far  deeper  one  ahead.  It  has  arrested  the  religious 
feeling  of  the  country,  it  has  taken  strong  hold  on  the  consciences  of  men.  He  is  a 
rash  man,  indeed,  and  little  conversant  with  human  nature,  and  especially  has  he 
an  erroneous  estimate  of  the  character  of  the  people  of  this  country,  who  supposes 
that  a  feeling  of  this  kind  is  to  bo  trilled  with  or  -despised.  It  will  assuredly  cause 
itself  to  be  respected.  But  to  endeavor  to  coin  it  into  silver,  or  reLvin  its  free 
expression,  to  seek  to  compress  and  confine  it,  warm  as  it  is,  and  mere  heated  as 
such  endeavors  would  inevitably  render  it — should  this  be  attempted,  i  know 
nothing,  even  in  the  Constitution  or  Union  itself,  which  might  not  be  endangered 
by  the  explosion  which  might  follow." 

When  discussing  the  Oregon  Bill  in  1848,  he  said : 

44 1  have  made  up  my  mind,  for  one,  that  under  no  circumstances  will  I  consent 
to  the  further  extension  of  the  area  of  slavery  in  the  United  States,  or  to  the  fur 
ther  increase  of  slave  representation  in  the  House  of  Representatives." 


NOKTHEKN    TESTIMONY.  117 

tinder  date  of  February  15th.  1850,  in  a  letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Fur- 
ness,  he  says : 

"  From  my  earliest  youth  I  have  regarded  slavery  as  a  great  moral  and  political 
evil.  I  think  it  unjust,  repugnant  to  the  natural  equality  of  mankind,  founded  only 
in  superior  power ;  a  standing  and  permanent  conquest  by  the  stronger  over  the 
weaker.  All  pretence  of  defending  it  on  the  ground  of  different  races,  I  have  ever 
condemned.  I  have  even  said  that  if  the  black  race  is  weaker,  that  is  a  reason 
against,  not  for,  its  subjection  and  oppression.  In  a  religious  point  of  view  I  have 
ever  regarded  it,  and  even  spoken  of  it,  not  as  subject  to  any  express  denunciation, 
either  in  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New,  but  as  opposed  to  the  whole  spirit  of  the 
Gospel  and  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a  reli 
gion  of  kindness,  justice  and  brotherly  love.  But  slavery  is  not  kindly  affectionate  . 
it  does  not  seek  anothers,  and  not  its  own ;  it  does  not  let  the  oppressed  go  free. 
It  is,  as  I  have  said,  but  a  continual  act  of  oppression,  But  then,  such  is  the 
influence  of  a  habit  of  thinking  among  men,  and  such  is  the  influence  of  what  has 
been  long  established,  that  even  minds,  religious  and  tenderly  conscientious, 
such  as  would  be  shocked  by  any  single  act  of  oppression,  in  any  single  exercise 
of  violence  and  unjust  power,  are  not  always  moved  by  the  reflection  that  slavery 
is  a  continual  and  permanent  violation  of  human  rights'." 

While  delivering  a  speech  at  Buffalo,  in  the  State  of  ISTew  York,  in 
the  summer  of  1851,  only  about  twelve  months  prior  to  his  decease,  he 
made  use  of  the  following  emphatic  words : 

i(  I  never  would  consent,  and  never  have  consented,  that  there  should  be  one 
foot  of  slave  territory  beyond  what  the  eld  thirteen  States  had  at  the  formation  of 
of  the  Union.  Never,  never." 

XOAII   WEBSTER. 

Noah  "Webster,  the  great  American  vocabulist,  says  : 

"  That  freedom  is  the  sacred  right  of  every  man,  whatever  be  his  color,  who  has 
not  forfeited  it  by  some  violation  of  municipal  law,  is  a  truth  established  by  God 
himself,  in  the  very  creation  of  human  beings.  No  time,  no  circumstance,  no 
human  power  or  policy  can  change  the  nature  of  this  truth,  nor  repeal  the  funda 
mental  laws  of  society,  by  which  every  man's  right  to  liberty  is  guarantied.  The 
act  of  enslaving  men  is  always  a  violation  of  those  great  primary  laws  of  society, 
by  which  alone,  the  master  himself  holds  every  particle  of  his  own  freedom." 

THE   VOICE   OF   CLINTON. 

De  Witt  Clinton,  the  father  of  the  great  system  of  internal  improve 
ments  in  the  State  of  New  York,  speaking  of  despotism  in  Europe,  and 
of  slavery  ir  America,  asks : 

"  Have  not  prescription  and  precedent—patriarchal  dominion — divine  right  of 
kings  and  masters,  been  alternately  called  in  to  sanction  the  slavery  of  nations  ? 
And  would  not  all  the  despotisms  of  the  ancient  and  modern  world  have  van 
ished  into  air,  if  the  natural  equality  of  mankind  had  been  properly  under 
stood  and  practised?  ....  This  declares  that  the  same  measure  of  justice 
ought  to  be  measured  out  to  all  men,  without  regard  to  adventitious  inequalities, 
and  the  intellectual  and  physical  disparities  which  proceed  from  inexplicable 
causes." 

THE   VOICE   OF   WAEEEN. 

Major  General  Joseph  Warren,  one  of  the  truest  patriots  of  the  Revo 
lution,  and  the  first  American  officer  of  rank  that  fell  in  our  contest  with 
Great  Britain,  says  : 

"  That  personal  freedom  is  the  natural  right  of  every  man,  and  that  property, 
or  an  exclusive  right  to  dispose  of  what  he  has  honestly  acquired  by  his  own  labor., 
necessarily  arises  therefrom,  are  truths  that  common  sense  has  placed  beyond  the 


NORTHERN    TESTIMONY. 

reach  of  contradiction.  And  no  man,  or  body  of  men,  can,  without  being  guilty  of 
flagrant  injustice,  claim  a  right  to  dispose  of  the  persons  or  acquisitions  of  any 
other  man  or  body  of  men,  unless  it  can  be  proved  that  such  a  right  has  arisen 
from  some  compact  between  the  parties,  in  which  it  has  been  explicitly  and  freelj 
granted." 

Otis,  Hancock,  Ames,  and  others,  should  be  heard,  but  for  lack  ot 
space.  Volumes  upon  volumes  might  be  filled  with  extracts  similar  to 
the  above,  from  the  works  of  the  deceased  statesmen  and  uages  of  the 
North,  who,  while  living,  proved  themselves  equal  to  the  task  of  exter 
minating  from  their  own  States  the  matchless  curse  of  human  slavery. 
Such  are  the  men  who,  though  no  longer  with  us  in  the  flesh,  "  still 
live."  A  living  principle — an  immortal  interest — have  they,  invested  in 
every  great  and  good  work  that  distinguishes  the  free  States.  The  rail 
roads,  the  canals,  the  telegraphs,  the  factories,  the  fleets  of  merchant 
vessels,  the  magnificent  cities,  the  scientific  modes  of  agriculture,  the 
unrivalled  institutions  of  learning,  and  other  striking  evidences  of  pro 
gress  and  improvement  at  the  North,  are,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
the  offspring  of  their  gigantic  intellects.  When,  if  ever,  commerce, 
and  manufactures,  and  agriculture,  and  great  enterprises,  and  truth,  and 
liberty,  and  justice,  and  magnanimity,  shall  have  become  obsolete  terms, 
then  their  names  may  possibly  be  forgotton,  but  not  till  then. 

An  army  of  brave  and  worthy  successors — champions  of  Freedom 
iiow  living,  have  the  illustrious  forefathers  of  the  North,  in  the  persona 
of  Garrison,  Greeley,  Giddings,  Goodell,  Grow,  and  Gen-it  Smith ;  in 
Seward,  Surnner,  Stowe,  Kaymoiid,  Parker,  and  Phillips ;  in  Beecher, 
Banks,  Burlingaine,  Bryant,  Hale,  and  Hildreth ;  in  Emerson,  Dayton, 
Thompson,  Tappan,  King  and  Cheever;  in  Whittier,  Wilson,  Wade, 
Wayland,  Weed,  and  Burleigh.  These  are  the  men  whom,  in  connection 
with  their  learned  and  eloquent  compatriots,  the  Everetts,  the  Bancrofts, 
the  Prescotts,  the  Chapins,  the  Longfellows,  and  the  Danas,  future  his 
torians,  if  faithful  to  their  calling,  will  place  on  record  as  America's  true 
statesmen,  literati,  preachers,  philosophers,  and  philanthropists,  of  the 
present  age. 

In  this  connection,  however,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  remark  that  the 
Homers,  the  Platos,  the  Bacons,  the  Newtons,  the  Shakspeares,  the 
Miltons,  the  Blackstones,  the  Cuviers,  the  Ilumboklts,  and  the  Macau- 
lays  of  America,  have  not  yet  been  produced  ;  nor,  in  our  humble  judg 
ment,  will  they  be,  until  slavery  shall  have  been  overthrown,  and  free 
dom  established  in  the  States  of  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee. 
Upon  the  soil  of  those  States,  when  free,  or  on  other  free  soil  crossed  by 
about  the  same  degrees  of  latitude,  and  not  distant  from  the  Appalachian 
chain  of  mountains,  will,  we  believe,  be  nurtured  into  manhood,  in  the 
course  of  one  or  two  centuries,  perhaps,  as  great  men  as  those  mentioned 
above— greater,  possibly,  than  any  that  have  ever  yet  lived.  Whence 
their  ancestors  may  come,  whether  from  Europe,  from  Asia,  from  Africa, 


NORTHERN   TESTIMONY.  119 

from  Oceanica,  from  North  or  South  America,  or  from  the  islands  of  the 
sea,  or  whatever  honorable  vocation  they  may  now  be  engaged  in,  mat 
ters  nothing  at  all.  For  aught  we  know,  their  great-grandfathers  are 
now  humble  artisans  in  Maine,  or  moneyed  merchants  in  Massachusetts  ; 
illiterate  poor  whites  in  Mississippi,  or  slave-driving  lordlings  in  South 
Carolina ;  frugal  farmers  in  Michigan,  or  millionaires  in  Illinois  ;  daring 
hunters  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  or  metal-diggers  in  California ;  peasants 
in  France,  or  princes  in  Germany — no  matter  where,  or  what,  the  scope 
of  country  above  mentioned  is,  in  our  opinion,  destined  to  be  the  birth 
place  of  their  illustrious  offspring — the  great  savans  of  the  New  World, 
concerning  whom  let  us  console  ourselves  with  the  hope  that  they  are 
not  buried  deeply  in  the  matrix  of  the  future. 


CHAPTER   V. 

TESTIMONY     OF     THE    NATIOKB. 

Here's  Freedom  to  them  that  would  read, 

Here's  Freedom  to  them  that  would  write, 
There's  none  ever  feared  that  the  truth  should  be  .J53T-5, 

But  they  whom  the  truth  would  indict. 
May  Liberty  ""*et  with  success, 

May  Pruvxi.,,.5  protect  it  from  evil, 
May  tyrants  and  tyranny  tine  in  their  mist, 

And  wander  their  way  to  the  devil  I 

BUMS. 

To  the  true  friends  of  freedom  throughout  the  world,  it  is  a  pleasing 
ihought,  and  one  which,  by  being  communicated  to  others,  is  well  cal 
culated  to  universalize  the  principles  of  liberty,  that  the  great  heroes, 
statesmen,  and  sages,  of  all  ages  and  nations,  ancient  and  modern,  who 
have  ever  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the  institution  of  human  slavery, 
have  entered  their  most  unequivocal  aud  positive  protests  against  it. 
To  say  that  they  disapproved  of  the  system  would  not  be  sufficiently 
expressive  of  the  utter  detestation  with  which  they  uniformly  regarded 
it.  That  they  abhorred  it  as  the  vilest  invention  that  the  Evil  One  has 
ever  assisted  bad  men  to  concoct,  is  quite  evident  from  the  very  tone 
and  construction  of  their  language. 

Having  with  much  pleasure  and  profit,  heard  the  testimony  of  America, 
through  her  representative  men,  we  will  now  hear  that  of  other  nations, 
through  their  representative  men — doubting  not  that  we  shall  be  more 
than  remunerated  for  our  time  and  trouble.  "We  will  first  listen  to 

THE   VOICE    OF   ENGLAND. 

In  the  case  of  James  Somerset,  a  negro  who  had  been  kidnapped  in 
Africa,  transported  to  Virginia,  there  sold  into  slavery,  thence  carried 
to  England,  as  a  waiting-boy,  and  there  induced  to  institute  proceedings 
against  his  master  for  the  recovery  of  his  freedom, 

MANSFIELD  says : 

"  The  state  of  slavery  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  is  incapable  of  being  introduced 
on  a.ny  reasons  moral  or  political,  but  only  by  positive  law,  which  preserves  its 
force  long  after  the  reasons,  occasion,  and  time  itself  whence  it  was  created,  are 
erased  from  the  memory.  It  is  so  odious  that  nothing  can  be  sufficient  to  support 
it  but  positive  law.  Whatever  inconveniences,  therefore,  may  follow  from  the 
decision,  I  cannot  say  that  this  case  is  allowed  or  approved  by  the  law  of  England, 
and,  therefore,  the  black  must  be  discharged." 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE   NATIONS.  121 


LOCKE  says  : 

"  Slavery  is  so  vile,  so  miserable  a  state  of  man,  and  so  directly  opposite  to  tha 
generous  temper  and  courage  of  our  nation,  that  it  is  hard  to  be  convinced  that  an 
Englishman,  much  less  a  gentleman,  should  plead  for  it." 

Again,  he  says  : 

*'  Though  the  earth,  and  all  inferior  creatures,  be  common  to  all  men,  yet  every 
cian  has  a  property  in  his  own  person  ;  this  nobody  has  a  right  to  but  himself." 

In  her  speech  at  the  opening  of  Parliament,  on  the  3d  of  February, 

1859, 

QUEEN  VICTORIA,  said  : 

"  I  have  great  satisfaction  in  announcing  to  you  that  the  Emperor  of  the  French 
has  abolished  a  system  of  negro  emigration  from  the  coast  of  Africa,  against  which, 
as  unavoidably  tending,  however  guarded,  to  the  encouragement  of  the  slave  trade, 
ray  government  has  never  ceased  to  address  to  his  Imperial  Majesty  its  most  earnest 
but  friendly  representations.  This  wise  act  on  the  part  of  his  Imperial  Majesty 
induces  me  to  hope  that  the  negotiations  now  in  progress  at  Paris  may  tend  to  the 
total  abandonment  of  the  system,  and  to  the  substitution  of  a  duly  regulated  sup 
ply  of  free  labor." 

PITT  says: 
"  It  is  injustice  to  permit  slavery  to  remain  for  a  single  hour." 

FOX  says: 

"  With  regard  to  a  regulation  of  slavery,  my  detestation  of  its  existence  induces 
me  to  know  no  such  thing  as  a  regulation  of  robbery,  and  a  restriction  of  murder. 
Personal  freedom  is  a  right  of  which  he  who  deprives  a  fellow-creature  is  criminal 
in  so  depriving  him,  and  he  who  withholds  is  no  less  criminal  in  witliholding." 

Speaking  in  Parliament  against  the  slave  trade, 

HUDDLESTONE  remarked  : 

That  a  curse  attended  this  trade  even  in  the  mode  of  defending  it.  By  a  cer 
tain  fatality,  none  but  the  vilest  arguments  were  brought  forward,  which  corrupted 
thf  very  persons  who  used  them.  Every  one  of  these  was  built  on  the  narrow  ground 
of  interest,  of  pecuniary  profit,  of  sordid  gain,  in  opposition  to  every  motive  that 
had  reference  to  humanity,  justice  and  religion,  or  to  that  great  principle  which 
comprehended  them  all." 


8HAK6PEAEE 

"  A  mail  is  master  of  his  liberty.'* 
Again,  he  says  : 

"It  is  the  curse  of  kings  to  be  attended 
By  slaves,  that  take  their  humors  for  a  warrant 
To  break  within  the  bloody  house  of  life, 
And,  on  the  winking  of  authority, 
To  understand  a  law  ;  to  know  the  meaning 
Of  dangerous  majesty,  when,  perchance,  it  frowns 
More  upon  humor  than  advised  respect." 
Again  : 

"  Heaven  will  one  day  free  us  from  this  slavery." 

Again  : 

Liberty  !  Freedom  !    Tyranny  is  dead  !  — 
Run  hence,  proclaim,  cry  it  about  the  streets; 
Some  to  the  common  pulpits,  and  cry  out, 
Liberty,  freedom,  and  enfranchisement." 


122  TESTIMONY    OF   THE   NATIONS, 

COTVPEE  says: 

"  Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England ;  if  their  lungs 
Receive  our  air.  that  moment  they  arc  free. 
They  touch  our  country  and  their  shackles  fall.  • 

That's  noble,  and  bespeaks  a  nation  proud 
And  jealous  of  the  blessing.    Spread  it  then, 
And  let  it  circulate  through  every  vein 
Of  all  your  empire,  that  where  Britain's  powei 
Is  felt,  mankind  may  feel  her  mercy  too." 

MILTON  asks: 

*'  Where  is  the  beauty  to  see. 
Like  the  sun-brilliant  brow  of  a  nation  when  free  f 

Again,  ho  exclaims : 

"  O  execrable  son,  so  to  aspire 
Above  his  brethren,  to  himself  assuming 
Authority  nsurp'd,  from  God  not  given: 
He  gave  us  only  over  beast,  fish,  fowl, 
Dominion  absolute  ;  that  right  we  hold 
By  his  donation  ;  but  man  over  men 
He  made  not  lord  ;  such  title  to  himself 
Reserving,  human  left  from  human  free." 

Again,  he  says : 

"  If  our  fathers  promised  for  themselves,  to  make  themselves  slaves,  they  could 
make  no  such  promise  for  us." 

Again : 

"  Since,  therefore,  the  law  is  chiefly  right  reason,  if  we  are  bound  to  obey  a 
magistrate  as  a  minister  of  God,  by  the  very  same  reason  and  the  very  same  law, 
we  ought  to  resist  a  tyrant,  and  minister  of  the  devil." 

DE.  JOHNSON  says: 

"  No  man  is  by  nature  the  property  of  another.  The  rights  of  naturo  must  be 
gome  way  forfeited  before  they  can  justly  be  taken  away." 

DE.  PEICE  says : 

"  If  you  have  a  right  to  make  another  man  a  slave,  he  has  a  right  to  make  you  a 
slave." 

IIAREIET   MAETINEATJ   Says  : 

"  Where  a  man  is  allowed  the  possession  of  himself,  the  purchaser  of  his  labor  la 
benefited  by  the  vigor  of  his  mind  through  the  service  of  his  limbs:  where  man  is 
made  the  possession  of  another,  the  possessor  loses  at  once  and  forever  all  that  ia 
most  valuable  in  that  for  which  he  has  paid  the  price  of  crime." 

BLACKSTONE    SUJS  : 

•'if  neither  captivity  nor  contract  can,  by  the  plain  law  of  nature  and  reason,  re 
duce  the  parent  to  a  state  of  slavery,  much  less  can  they  reduce  the  offspring." 

Again,  he  says ; 

"  The  primary  aim  of  society  is  to  protect  individuals  in  the  enjoyment  of  those 
absolute  rights  which  were  vested  in-  them  by  the  immutable  laws  of  nature. 
Hence  it  follows  that  the  first  and  primary  end  of  human  laws  is  to  maintain  those 
absolute  rights  of  individuals." 

Again : 

"  If  any  human  law  shall  allow  or  require  us  to  commit  crime,  we  are  bound  to 
transgress  that  human  law,  or  else  we  must  offend  both  the  natural  and  divine." 


TESTIMOSTT   OF  THE   NATIONS.  123 


COKE  says: 

"What  the  Parliament  doth,  shall  be  holden  for  naught,  whenever  it  shall 
enact  that  which  is  contrary  to  the  rights  of  nature." 

HAMPDEX  says : 

"  The  essence  of  all  law  is  justice.  What  is  not  justice  is  not  law ;  and  "what  is 
not  law  ought  not  to  be  obeyed." 

HARRINGTON  says : 

"  All  men  naturally  are  equal ;  for  though  nature  with  a  noble  variety  has  made 
different  features  and  lineaments  of  men,  yet  as  to  freedom,  she  has  made  every 
one  alike,  and  given  them  the  same  desires." 

FOKTESCTJE  says : 

"Those  rights  -which  uod  and  nature  have  established,  and  which  are  therefore 
called  natural  rights,  such  as  life  and  liberty,  need  not  the  aid  of  human  laws  to  be 
more  effectually  invested  in  every  man  than  they  are  ;  neither  do  they  receive  any 
additional  strength  when  declared  by  the  municipal  laws  to  be  inviolable.  On  the 
contrary,  no  human  power  has  any  authority  to  abridge  or  destroy  them,  unless 
the  owner  himself  shall  commit  some  act  that  amounts  to  a  forfeiture." 

And  again  : 

"The  law,  therefore,  which  supports  slavery  and  opposes  liberty,  mustnccessa 
rily  be  condemned  as  cruel. for  every  feeling  of  human  nature  advocates  liberty. 
Slavery  is  introduced  by  human  wickedness,  but  God  advocates  liberty,  by  tlio 
nature  which  he  has  given  to  man." 

BROUGHAM  says  : 

"  Tell  me  not  of  rights — talk  not  of  the  property  of  the  planter  in  his  fJdves.  1 
deny  the  right ;  I  acknowledge  not  the  property.  In  vain  you  tell  me  of  lisvs  that 
sanction  such  a  claim.  There  is  a  law  above  all  the  enactments  of  human  codes, 
the  same  throughout  the  world,  the  same  in  all  times;  it  is  the  law  written  by  the 
linger  of  God  on  the  .hearts  of  men  ;  and  by  that  law.  unchangeable  end  eternal, 
while  men  despise  fraud,  and  loathe  rapine,  and  abhor  blood,  they  shall  reject  witl* 
iadignation  the  wild  and  guilty  phantasy  that  man  can  hold  property  ir  man." 

THE   VOICE    OF   ICELAND. 

BURKE  says  : 

"  Slavery  is  a  state  so  improper,  so  degrading,  and  so  ruinous  to  the  feelings  and 
capacities  of  human  nature,  that  it  ought  not  to  be  suffered  to  exist." 

CURRAN  says : 

"I  speak  in  the  spirit  of  British  law,  which  makes  liberty  commensurate  with  and 
inseparable  from  British  soil :  which  proclaims  even  to  the  stranger  and  the 
KI  journer,  the  moment  he  steps  his  foot  on  British  earth,  that  the  ground  on  which 
lie  treads  is  holy  and  consecrated  by  the  genius  of  Universal  Emancipation.  No 
'.  attcr  in  what  language  his  doom  may  have  been  pronounced  ;  no  matter  what 
«  omplexion,  incompatible  with  freedom,  an  Indian  or  African  sun  may  have  burnt 
i  pon  him;  no  matter  in  what  disastrous  battle  his  liberty  may  have  been  cloven 
(own ;  no  matter  with  what  solemnities  he  may  have  been  devoted  upon  the  altar 
t.f  slavery,  the  moment  he  touches  the  sacred  soil  of  Britain,  the  altar  and  the  god 
fink  together  in  the  dust;  his  soul  walks  abroad  in  her  own  majesty  ;  and  he  stands 
redeemed,  regenerated  and  disenthralled  by  the  irresistible  genius  of  Universal 
Emancipation." 

The  Dublin  University  Magazine  for  December,  1850,  says  : 

"  The  United  States  must  learn,  from  the  example  of  Home,  that  Christianity  and 
the  pagan  institution  of  slavery  cannot  coexist  together.  The  Republic  must  take 
her  side  and  choose  her  favorite  child ;  for  if  she  love  the  one,  see  must  hate  tho 
rther." 


124  TESTIMONY   OF  THE   NATIONS. 


THE    VOICE    OF     SCO  i  LAND. 

BEATTIE  says  : 

"Slavery  is  inconsistent  with  the  dearest  and  most  essential  ligms  of  man's  na 
ture  ;  it  is  detrimental  to  virtue  and  industry  ;  it  hardens  the  heart  to  those  ten  del 
sympathies  which  form  the  most  lovely  part  of  human  chara  ter  ;  it  involves  the 
innocent  in  hopeless  misery,  in  order  to  procure  wealth  and  pleasure  for  the  author?) 
of  that  misery;  it  seeks  to  degrade  into  brutes  beings  whom  the  Lord  of  Heaven 
and  Earth  endowed  with  rational  souls,  and  created  for  immortality;  in  short,  it  is 
utterly  repugnant  to  every  principle  of  reason,  religion,  humanity,  and  conscience. 
It  is  impossible  for  a  considerate  and  unprejudiced  mind,  to  think  of  slavery  ^itL- 
out  horror." 

MILLER   says  : 

"  The  human  mind  revolts  at  a  serious  discussion  of  the  subject  of  slavery. 
Every  individual,  whatever  be  his  country  or  complexion,  is  entitled  to  freedom." 

MACKXIGHT    say s  : 

1 '•  Men-stealers  arc  inserted  among  the  daring  criminals  against  whom  the  law  of 
Go  1  directed  its  awful  curses.  These  were  persons  who  kidnapped  men  to  sell  them 
for  slaves  ;  and  this  practice  seems  inseparable  from  the  other  iniquities  and  oppres 
sions  of  slavery;  nor  can  a  slave  deaier  easily  keep  free  from  this  criminality,  if 
indeed  the  receiver  is  as  bad  as  the  thief." 

TIIE    VOICE    OF    FRAXCE. 
LAFAYETTE    SavS  : 

"1  would  never  have  drawn  my  sword  in  the  cause  of  America,  if  I  could  have 
Conceived  that  therob}'  I  Avas  founding  a  land  of  slavery." 

Again,  while  in  the  prison  of  Magdeburg,  he  says : 

"  I  know  not  what  disposition  has  been  made  of  my  plantation  at  Cayenne ;  but 
I  hope  Madame  cle  Lafayette  will  take  care  that  the  negroes  who  cultivate  it  shall 
preserve  their  liberty." 

O.  LAFAYETTE,  grandson  of  General  Lafayette,  in  a  letter  under  dato 
of  April  26th,  1851,  says  : 

"  This  great  question  of  the  abolition  of  Negro  Slavei-y,  which  lias  my  entire 
sympathy,  appears  to  me  to  have  established  its  importance  throughout  the  world. 
At  the  present  time,  the  States  of  the  Peninsula,  if  I  do  not  deceive  myself,  are  the 
only  European  powers  who  still  continue  to  possess  slaves  ;  and  America,  while 
continuing  to  uphold  slavery,  feels  daily,  more  and  more,  how  heavily  it  weighs 
upon  her  destinies." 

MOXTESQUIETJ  asks  : 

"  What  civil  kiw  can  restrain  a  slave  from  running  away,  since  he  is  not  a  mem 
ber  of  society?" 

Again,  he  sayo  : 

"  Slavery  is  contrary  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  all  societies." 

Again. : 

"  In  democracies,  where  they  are  all  upon  an  equality,  slavery  is  contrary  to  the 
principles  of  the  Constitution." 

Again : 

"  Nothing  puts  one  nearer  the  condition  of  a  brute  than  always  to  sec  freemen 
and  not  be  free." 

Again : 

"  Even  the  earth  itself,  which  teems  with  profusion  under  the  cultivating  hami 
of  the  free  born  laborer,  shrinks  hi  barrenness  from  the  contanoinatin"-  sweat  of  a 
Biavc." 


TESTIMONY   OF  THE  NATIONS.  125 

LOUIS  x,  issued  the  following  edict : 

"  As  all  men  are  by  nature  free  born,  and  as  this  Kingdom  is  called  the  Kingdom 
of  Franks  (freemen),  it  shall  be  so  in  reality.  It  is  therefore  decreed  that  cnfran- 
cliisement  shall  be  granted  throughout  the  whole  Kingdom  upon  just  and  reason 
able  terms." 

BTJFFON  says : 

"  It  is  apparent  that  the  unfortunate  negroes  are  endowed  with  excellent  hearts, 
and  possess  the  seeds  of  every  human  virtue.  1  cannot  write  their  history  without 
lamenting  their  miserable  condition." 

EOUSSEAU  says : 

"  The  terms  slavery  and  right,  contradict  and  exclude  each  other." 
BEISSOT  says  : 

44  Slavery,  in  all  its  forms,  in  all  its  degrees,  is  a  violation  of  divine  law,  and  a 
degradation  of  human  nature." 

THE   VOICE   OF   GEEMANY. 

GEOTITJS  says : 

44  Those  are  men-stealers  vho  abduct,  keep,  sell  or  buy  slaves  or  freemen.  To 
steal  a  man  is  the  highest  kind  of  theft." 

GOETHE  says: 

4'  Such  busy  multitudes  I  fain  wrould  see 
Stand  upon  free  soil  with  a  people  free." 

LTTTIIEK  says: 

"  Unjust  violence  is,  by  no  means,  the  ordinance  of  God,  and  therefore  can  binJ 
no  one  in  conscience  and  right,  to  obey,  whether  the  command  chines  from  pope, 
emperor,  king  or  master." 

Carl  Schurz,  a  distinguished  German  orator,  patriot  and  statesman, 
now  a  citizen  of  Wisconsin — a  man  Avho  was  born  to  reflect  honor  on 
whatever  state  or  nation  in  which  he  may  reside — in  a  most  eloquent 
and  forcible  speech  which  he  delivered  in  Fanetiil  Hall,  Boston,  April 
18,  1859,  says: 

"  Look  at  the  slave  States.  There  is  a  class  of  men  who  are  deprived  of  their 
natural  rights.  But  this  is  not  the  only  deplorable  feature  of  that  peculiar  organ 
ization  of  society.  Equally  deplorable  is  it,  that  there  is  another  class  of  men  \vlio 
keep  the  former  in  subjection.  That  there  are  slaves  is  bad  ;  but  almost  worse  is 
it,  that  there  are  masters.  Are  not  the  masters  freemen?  No,  sir!  Where  is 
thc-ir  liberty  of  the  press?  Where  is  their  liberty  of  speech?  Where  is  the  man 
among  them  who  dares  to  advocate  openly  principles  not  in  strict  accordance  with 
the  ruling  system?  They  speak  of  a  Republican  form  of  government,  they  speak 
of  Democracy,  but  the  despotic  spirit  of  slavery  and  mastership  combined  per 
vades  their  whole  political  life  like  a  liquid  poison.  I  am  an  anti-slavery  man.  :irul 
I  have  a  right  to  my  opinion  in  South  Carolina  just  as  well  as  in  Massachusetts. 
My  neighbor  is  a  Democmt ;  I  maybe  sorry  tor  it,  but  I  solemnly  acknowledge 
his  right  to  his  opinion  in  Massachusetts  as  well  as  in  South  Carolina.  You  tell  me, 
that  tor  my  opinion  they  will  mob  me  in  South  Carolina.  Sir,  t  hf.ro  is  th?  d ! Her 
ein:  c  between  South  Carolina  ami  Massachusetts.  There  is  the  di'lorenee  between 
an  anti-slavery  man,  who  is  a  freeman,  and  a  slaveholder,  who  is  himself  a  slave." 

Frederick  Kapp,  an  accomplished  German  author  and  orator,  who, 
since  his  arrival  in  America — many  years  ago — has  paid  much  atten 
tion  to  our  social  and  political  institutions,  says : 


120  TESTIMONY   OF   THE  NATIONS. 

''The  -whites  who  reside  in  the  South,  and  are  non-slaveholders,  add  very  little 
weight  to  the  scale,  because  they  are  entirely  dependent  upon  the  slaveholders, 
even  though  these  latter  constitute  no  more  than  perhaps  the  one-ninth  of  the 
whole  population  of  the  slave  States.  The  non-slaveholders  are  characterize.!  by 
their  poverty  and  ignorance  :  ami  we  think  it  a  sale  calculation  to  say  that  not 
more  than  one-fourth  of  the  whole  white  population  can  read  and  write.  It  is  the 
interest  of  the  slaveholder  to  perpetuate  ignorance.  For  this  reason  the  free-school 
Hystem  of  the  North  has  no  existence  in  the  South  ;  the  greater  the  rawness  and 
poverty  on  the  part  of  the  whites,  the  greater  is  their  subordination  to,  and  de 
pendence  on,  the  slave  aristocracy. 

'•  As  a  natural  consequence  growing  out  of  these  relations,  it  is  the  slaveholder 
only  who  can  obtain  public  office,  or  who  is  elected  to  Congress :  in  fact,  many  of 
the  Southern  constitutions  prescribe  such  qualifications  as  being  requisite.  The 
slaveholders,  by  these  means,  transmit  from  family  to  family  a  hereditary  influ 
ence,  so  that  they  are  no  longer  merely  natural  politicians,  but  have  a  political 
education,  a  general  political  spirit,  a  very  decided  political  tradition." 

To  Dr.  Max  Langenschwarz,  who,  in  1833,  in  connection  with  his 
friend  Ludwig  Storch,  formed  an  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  Leipsic,  Ger 
many,  we  are  indebted  for  the  following  brief  but  interesting  annuls: 

"  The  first  historical  documents  in  regard  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  are  to  be 
found  in  Germany,  whose  people  and  governments  at  a  very  early  period  declared 
themselves  against  J^eiticigeaschaft  (involuntary  bondage),  and  against  every  right 
t,o  buy  or  sell  human  beings,  or  to  keep  them'  as  slaves.  In  a  document  of  the 
fifth  century,  we  find  that  the  Catti  united  with  the  Franks  in  a  war  against  the 
Gauls,  under  the  express  condition  '  That  the  prisoners  should  be  exchanged, 
that  no  prisoner  should  be  held  or  brought  into  bondage  as  Lcibeigcn  (a  slave,)  and 
that  capital  punishment  should  avenge  such  a  crime  against  God  and  men.' 

•'  The  same  feelings  are  to  be  found  in  many  other  documents  of  the  old  Germans. 
In  1:572.  Henry  the  Iron,  one  of  the  first  Landgraves  of  HcRsia,  published  an  edict: 
'  Abolishing  for  all  eternity  the  state  of  Leibeigenschaft  (slavery),  and  threatening 
with  death  all  those  who  should  be  discovered  keeping  a  man,  woman  or  child,  in 
involuntary  servitude.' 

'•In  a  bishopte  edict  in  14.11  (.Muens^er),  we  find  the  following :  '  Tf  a  man  is 
kept  in  involuntary  bondage  and  as  a  slave  against  his  will,  he  shall  ask  for  his  im 
mediate  deliverance;  and  if  he  is  kept  a  slave  in  spite  of  his  demand,  and  defends 
himself  against  his  master,  and  kills  him,  the  killing  (Todtschlag)  shall  not  be  con 
sidered  as  murder.'  " 

THE   VOICE    OF    RUSSIA. 

Those  of  our  readers  who  keep  themselves  informed  of  the  grand 
movements  and  enterprises  of  the  age,  need  scarcely  be  reminded  that 
the  present  Czar  of  Russia,  Alexander  IT.,  who  is  not  merely  an  emperor 
but  also  a  man,  and  who,  by  the  profound  wisdom  and  magnanimity  of 
his  measures,  bids  fair  to  become  a  greater  Alexander  than  Alexander 
the  Great,  has  recently  issued  an  elaborate  ukase  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  about,  in  due  time,  the  complete  abolition  of  serfdom  through 
out  his  vast  empire.  In  Moscow,  at  a  banquet  held  on  the  Oth  of  Janu 
ary,  1858,  in  eclat  of  the  emperors  ukase,  and  in  furtherance  of  the 
plans  proposed  for  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs,  M.  Bapst,  the  eminent 
Russian  professor  of  political  economy,  said : 

<:  We  have  met  here  to  celebrate  an  event  which  will  be  an  epoch  in  the  annals 
of  our  history,  and  upon  which  future  historians  will  dwell  with  pleasure.  At  the 
very  commencement  of  this  century,  one  of  our  first  manufacturers  said  to  Storch. 
that  trade  could  never  flourish  under  our  system  of  compulsory  labor  or.  in  other 
words,  of  serfage  ;  already,  in  184D,  the  Free  Economical  Society  proved  by  facts 
the  inconveniences  of  serfage  as  regards  agriculture.  The  development  of  national 
wealth  has  ever  gone  hand-in-haud  with  the  regular  organization  of  popular  labor. 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE   NATIONS.  127 

which,  as  it  gradually  emancipates  itself  from  stringent  conditions,  becomes  mora 
active,  more  progressive,  and  consequently  more  productive.  In  proportion  as 
national  labor  gradually  issues  forth  free  from  such  disadvantageous  conditions, 
the  love  of  work  increases  among  the  people.  Emulation  and  competition  arouse 
the  sleeping  energies  of  the  nation:  they  will  not  allow  them  to  rust,  and  excite 
them  to  healthy  activity  and  continual  progress.  The  day  of  the  primitive  forma 
of  the  economical  condition  of  the  people  has  now  left  us  forever.  The  wants  of 
a  great  nation  increase  daily,  and  cannot  be  satisfied  with  the  coarse  conditions  con 
trary  to  all  progress  of  primitive  economy  founded  on  compulsory  labor — a  labor  tho 
limits  of  which  are  as  restricted  as  its  nature  is  unproductive.  Our  task  is  not  to 
double,  but  to  increase  tenfold  our  productive  power,  our  labor,  our  wealth,  unless 
we  wish  to  see  taken  away  from  us  by  nations  more  advanced  than  ourselves  the 
markets  which  are  ours  by  tradition  and  by  our  geographical  position." 

On  the  same  occasion,  M.  Pauloff,  one  of  Professor  Bapst's  most 
worthy  compatriots,  said : 

"  Heaven  has  allowed  us  to  live  long  enough  to  witness  the  second  regeneration 
of  Russia.  We  may  congratulate  ourselves,  for  this  movement  is  one  of  great 
importance.  We  breathe  more  like  Christians,  our  hearts  beat  more  nobly,  and 
we  may  look  at  the  light  of  heaven  with  a  clearer  eye.  We  have  met  to-day  to 
express  our  deep  and  sincere  sympathy  for  a  holy  and  praiseworthy  work,  and  we 
meet  without  any  nervousness  to  mar  our  rejoicing.  A  new  spirit  animates 
us,  a  new  era  has  commenced.  One  of  our  social  conditions  is  on  the  eve  of  a 
change.  If  we  consider  it  in  a  past  light,  we  may  perhaps  admit  that  it  was  neces 
sary  that  it  should  have  been  allowed  to  be  as  it  was  from  the  want  of  a  better 
administrative  organization,  and  of  the  concentration  in  the  hands  of  a  govern 
ment  of  the  means  which  have  since  given  so  great  a  development  to  the  power 
of  Russia.  But  what  was  momentarily  gained  to  the  State  was  lost  to  mankind. 
The  advantage  cost  an  enormous  price.  Order  without — anarchy  within— and  the 
condition  of  the  individual  cast  its  shadow  over  society  at  large.  The  emperor  has 
struck  at  the  roots  of  this  evil.  The  glory  and  prosperity  of  Russia  cannot  rest 
upon  institutions  based  on  injustice  and  falsehood.  No !  these  blessings  are  hence 
forth  to  be  found  in  the  path  thrown  open  by  him  whose  name  Russia  pronounces 
with  respect  and  pride.  The  emperor  has  ceded  this  great  reform,  which  he 
might  have  accomplished  by  his  own  powerful  will,  by  asking  the  nobles  to  take 
the  initiative.  Let  us  then  hail  this  noble  idea,  inspired  by  the  sole  wish  for  the 
welfare  of  his  people,  with  that  enlightened  heartiness  which  may  now  be  expected 
from  Russia.  Let  us  not,  however,  suppose  that  the  path  traced  by  history  is  an 
avenue  of  roses  without  thorns.  This  would  be  sheer  ignorance.  When  a  iiew,  a 
more  moral  and  Christian  state  of  things  is  about  to  be  established,  the  obstacles 
that  will  have  to  be  encountered  must  not  be  taken  into  consideration,  except  with 
the  hope  that  the  torrent  of  the  new  life  will  sweep  them  away.  The  change  in 
the  economical  condition  of  our  national  existence  will  arouse  our  individual  ener 
gies,  the  want  of  which  is  one  of  our  greatest  evils.  Let  us  wish,  then,  gentle 
men,  from  our  innermost  heart,  a  long  life  to  him  who  has  marshalled  his  faithful 
Russia  to  the  conquest  of  truth  and  justice." 

THE   VOICE   OF   ITALY. 

CICERO  says : 

"  By  the  grand  laws  of  nature,  all  men  are  born  free,  and  this  law  ia  universally 
binding  upon  all  men." 

Again  lie  says: 
<l  Eternal  justice  is  the  basis  of  all  human  laws." 

Again : 

"  Law  is  not  something  wrought  out  by  man's  ingenuity,  nor  is  it  a  decree  of  the 
people,  but  it  is  something  eternal,  governing  the  wcrld  by  the  wisdom  of  its  com 
mands  and  prohibitions." 

Again : 

'•  Whatever  is  just  is  also  the  true  law,  nor  can  this  true  law  be  abrogated  b? 
Hny  written  enactments." 


128  lESIIMCXNY    OF   THE    NATIONS. 

Again : 

"  If  there  be  such  a,  power  in  the  decrees  and  commands  of  fools,  that  the  nature 
of  things  is  changed  by  their  votes,  why  do  they  not  decree  that  what  is  bad  and 
pernicious  shall  be  regarded  as  good  and  wholesome ;  or  why,  if  the  law  can  make 
Vrong  right,  can  it  not  make  bad  good  ?" 

Again : 

"  Those  who  have  mads  pernicious  and  unjust  decrees,  have  raade  anything 
rather  than  laws." 

Again : 

"  The  law  01  all  nations  forbids  one  man  to  pursue  his  advantage  at  the  expense 
of  another." 

LACTANTIUS  says : 

"  Justice  teaches  men  to  know  God  and  to  love  men,  to  love  and  assist  one 
another,  being  all  equally  the  children  of  God." 

LEO  x.  says : 

"  Not  only  does  the  Christian  religion,  but  nature  herself  cry  out  against  the 
Btatc  of  slavery." 

THE    YOICE    OF    GEEECE. 

SOCRATES  says  ; 

"  Slavery  is  a  system  of  outrage  and  robbery.'' 
AEISTOTLE  says : 

"  It  ia  neither  for  the  good,  nor  is  it  just,  seeing  all  men  are  by  nature  alike,  and 
equal,  that  one  should  be  lord  and  master  over  others." 

POLYBIUS  says : 

u  None  but  unprincipled  and  beastly  men  in  society  assume  the  mastery  over 
their  fellows,  as  it  is  among  bulls,  bears,  and  cocks." 

PLATO  says : 
4i  Slavery  is  a  system  of  the  most  complete  injustice." 

From  each  of  the  above,  and  from  other  nations,  additional  testimony 
is  at  hand  ;  but,  for  reasons  already  assigned,  we  forbear  to  introduce 
it.  Corroborative  of  the  correctness  of  the  position  which  we  have 
assumed,  even  Persia  has  a  voice,  which  may  be  easily  recognized  in  the- 
tones  of  her  immortal  Cyrus,  who  says  : 

11  To  fight,  in  order  not  to  be  made  a  slave,  is  noble." 

Than  Great  Britain  no  nation  has  more  heartily  or  honorably  repented 
of  the  crime  of  slavery— -no  nation,  on  the  perception  of  its  error,  has 
ever  acted  with  more  prompt  magnanimity  to  its  outraged  and  unhappy 
bondsmen.  Entered  to  her  credit,  many  precious  jewels  of  liberty 
remain  in  our  possession,  ready  to  be  delivered  when  called  for;  of  their 
value  some  idea  may  be  formed,  when  we  state  that  they  are  filigreed 
with  such  nnme.s  as  \Yilberforce,  Buxton,  Granville,  G rattan,  Camden, 
Clm-k.son,  Sharp,  Sheridan,  Sidney,  Martin,  and  Macaulay. 

Virginia,  the  Caroliuas,  and  other  Southern  States,  which  are  pro- 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE   NATIONS. 

vided,  not  with  republican,  but  with  anti-republican  forms  of  govern 
ment,  and  which  have  abolished  freedom,  should  learn,  from  the  history 
of  the  monarchical  governments  of  the  Old  World,  if  not  from  the  exam 
ple  of  the  more  liberal  arid  enlightened  portions  of  the  New,  how  to 
abolish  slavery.  The  lesson  is  before  them  in  a  variety  of  exceedingly 
interesting  forms,  and,  sooner  or  later,  they  must  learn  it,  either  volun 
tarily  or  by  compulsion.  Virginia,  in  particular,  is  a  spoilt  child, 
having  been  the  pet  of  the  General  Government  for  the  last  seventy 
years ;  and  like  many  other  other  spoilt  children,  she  has  become  fro- 
ward,  peevish,  perverse,  sulky  and  irreverent — not  caring  to  know  her 
duties,  and  failing  to  perform  even  those  which  she  does  know.  Her 
superiors  perceive  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  would  be  a  blessing  tc 
her ;  she  is,  however,  either  too  ignorant  to  understand  the  truth,  or 
else,  as  is  the  more  probable,  her  false  pride  and  obstinacy  restrain  hei 
from  acknowledging  it.  What  is  to  be  done?  Shall  ignorance,  or 
prejudice,  or  obduracy,  or  willful  meanness,  triumph  over  knowledge, 
and  liberality,  and  guilelessness,  and  laudable  enterprise  ?  No,  never  ! 
Assured  that  Virginia  and  all  the  other  slaveholding  States  are  doing 
wrong  every  day,  it  is  our  duty  to  make  them  do  right,  if  we  havo  the 
power ;  and  we  believe  we  have  the  power  now  resident  within  their 
own  borders.  What  are  the  opinians,  generally,  of  the  non-slaveholding 
whites  ?  Let  them  speak. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CIIUKCIIE8. 

"»V5:o  blushed  alike  to  be,  or  have  a  slave — 

Unchristian  thought !  on  what  pretence  soe'ei, 

Of  right  inherited,  or  else  acquired  ; 

Of  loss,  or  profit,  or  what  plea  you  name, 

To  buy  or  sell,  to  barter,  whip,  and  hold 

In  chains  a  belt:?  of  celestial  make — 

Of  kindred  form,  01  Irindrcd  faculties, 

Of  kindred  feelings,  pastions,  thoughts,  desires; 

Born  free,  and  heir  of  an  imoortal  hope  1 

Thought  villainous,  absurd,  detectable  ! 

Umvorthy  to  be  harbored  in  a  fiend  ! 

POLLOK. 

Lo  !  the  nation  is  arousing-, 

From  its  sluciber,  long  and  deep  ; 
And  the  Church  of  God  is  waking, 
Never,  never  more  to  sleep, 

While  a  bondman, 
In  his  chains  remains  to  weep. 

OLIVER  JOHSSOH. 

Iw  quest  of  a.guments  against  slavery,  we  have  perused  the  works  of 
several  eminent  Christian  writers  of  different  denominations,  and  we 
now  proceed  to  lay  before  the  reader  the  result  of  a  portion  of  our  labor. 
As  it  is  the  special  object  of  this  chapter  to  operate  on,  to  correct  ami 
cleanse  the  consciences  of  slaveholding  professors  of  religion,  we  shall 
adduce  testimony  only  from  the  five  churches  to  which  they,  in  their 
satanic  piety,  mostly  belong — the  Presbyterian,  the  Episcopal,  the  Bap 
tist,  the  Methodist,  and  the  Roman  Catholic — all  of  which,  we  hope,  are 
destined,  at  no  distant  day,  to  become  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  Heaven-ordained  Love  and  Freedom.  "With  few  exceptions,  all  the 
other  Christian  sects  are,  as  they  should  be,  avowedly  and  inflexibly 
opposed  to  the  inhuman  institution  of  slavery.  The  Congregational,  the 
Quaker,  the  Lutheran,  the  Dutch  and  German  Reformed,  the  Unita 
rian  and  the  Universalist,  especially,  are  all  honorable,  able,  and  elo 
quent  defenders  of  the  natural  rights  of  man.  We  will  begin  by  intro 
ducing  a  mass  of 

PRESBYTERIAN   TESTIMONY. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Barnes,  of  Philadelphia,  one  of  the  most  karned 
Presbyterian  preachers  and  commentators  of  the  day,  says  : 

130 


TESTIMONY    OT    THE   CHURCHES.  131 

"  There  is  a  deep  and  growing  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  mass  of  mankind, 
that  slavery  violates  the  great  laws  of  our  nature  ;  that  it  is  contrary  to  the  dictates 
of  humanity  ;  that  it  is  essentially  unjust,  oppressive  and  cruel  ;  that  it  invades  the 
rights  of  liberty  with  which  the  Author  of  our  being  has  endowed  all  human  beings; 
nnd  that,  in  all  the  forms  in  which  it  has  ever  existed,  it  has  been  impossible  to 
guard  it  from  what  its  friends  and  advocates  would  call  '  abuses  of  the  system.'  It 
is  a  vio'ation  of  tho  h'rst  sentiments  expressed  in  our  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  on  which  our  fathers  founded  the  vindication  of  their  own  conduct  in  an  appeal 
to  arms.  It  is  at  war  with  all  that  a  man  claims  for  himself  and  for  his  own  child 
ren  ;  and  it  is  opposed  to  all  the  struggles  of  mankind,  in  all  age?,  for  freedom. 
Tli3  claims  of  humanity  plead  against  it.  The  struggles  for  freedom  everywhere  iu 
our  world  condemn  it.  The  instinctive  feeling  in  every  man's  own  bosom  in  regard 
to  himself  is  a  condemnation  of  it.  The  noblest  deeds  of  valor,  and  of  patriotism 
in  our  own  land,  and  in  all  lands  where  men  have  struggled  for  freedom,  arc  a  con> 
damnation  of  the  system.  All  that  is  noble  in  man  is  opposed  to  it;  all  that  is 
ba<e,  oppressive,  and  cruel,  pleads  for  it. 

"The  spirit  of  the  New  Testament  is  against  slavery,  and  the  principles  of  the 
New  Testament,  if  fairly  applied,  would  abolish  it.  In  the  New  Testament  no  man 
is  commanded  to  purchase  and  own  a  slave  ;  no  man  is  commended  as  adding  any 
thing  to  the  evidences  of  his  Christian  character,  or  as  performing  the  appropriate 
duty  of  a  Christian,  for  owning  one.  Nowhere  in  the  New  Testament  is  the  insti 
tution  referred  to  as  a  good  one,  or  as  a  desirable  one.  It  is  commonly — indeed,  it 
is  almost  universally — conceded  that  the  proper  application  of  the  principles  of  the 
New  Testament  would  abolish  slavery  everywhere,  or  that,  the  state  of  things 
which  will  exist  when  the  Gospel  shall  be  fairly  applied  to  all  the  relations  of  life, 
slavery  will  not  bo  found  among  those  relations. 

"  Let  slavery  be  removed  from  the  church,  and  let  the  voice  of  the  church,  with 
one  accord,  be  lifted  up  in  favor  of  freedom ;  let  the  church  be  wholly  detached 
from  ths  institution,  and  let  there  be  adopted  by  all  its  ministers  and  members  an 
interpretation  of  the  Bible — as  I  believe  there  may  be  and  ought  to  be — that  shall 
be  in  accordance  with  the  deep-seated  principles  of  our  nature  in  favor  of  freedom, 
and  with  our  own  aspirations  for  liberty,  and  Avith  the  sentiments  of  the  world  in 
its  onward  progress  in  regard  to  human  rights,  and  not  only  would  a  very  material 
objection  against  the  Bible  be  taken  away — and  one  which  would  be  fatal  if  it  were 
well  founded — but  the  establishment  of  a  very  strong  argument  in  favor  of  the  Bible, 
as  a  revelation  from  God,  would  be  the  direct  result  of  such  a  position." 

"Writing  "  To  a  certain  elder  of  a  certain  Presbyterian  Church,"  nf 
which  church  he  himself  is  a  member, 

PROF,    C.    D.    CLEVELAND    Saj3  : 

"  What,  let  me  ask,  can  tend  more  to  shake  the  belief  of  men  in  the  divine  inspi 
ration  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  than  to  endeavor  to  prove  to  them,  that  these  same 
Scriptures — the  foundation  rock  of  our  faith — sanction  such  a  man-brutalizing  crime 
as  American  Slavery  1  The  natural  conscience  of  man,  all  the  world  over,  revolts 
with  loathing  at  this  monstrous  crime ;  and  the  law  of  nations  has  pronounced  the 
slave  trade  to  be  piracy,  condemning  to  the  gallows  those  found  guilty  of  it :  and  a 
sad  day  will  it  be  for  Christianity,  if  men  shall  be  brought  to  believe  that  their 
natural  conscience  and  the  laws  of  nations  are  higher,  in  their  moral  standard, 
than  what  claims  to  be  the  revealed  will  of  God." 

From  a  resolution  denunciatory  of  slavery,  unanimously  adopted  by 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  in  1818,  we  mako 
tho  following  extract : 

"  We  consider  the  voluntary  enslaving  of  one  part  of  the  human  race  by  another 
r\>  a  gross  violation  of  the  most  precious  and  sacred  rights  of  human  nature,  as  ut> 
toi  ly  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  God,  which  requires  us  to  love  our  neighbor  as 
ourselves,  and  as  totally  irreconcilable  with  the  spirit  and  principles  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ,  which  enjoins  that  '  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them.'  .  .  .  We  rejoice  that  the  church  to  which  we 
belong  commenced,  as  earl}'  as  any  other  in  this  country,  the  good  work  of  en- 
cleavo'ring  to  put  an  end  to  slavery,  and  that  in  the  same  wotk  many  of  its  members 
havo  ever  since  been,  and  now  are,  among  the  most  active,  vigorous,  and  efficient 
laborers.  .  .  .  We  earnestly  exhort  them  to  continue,  aad,  if  possible,  to  la 
••.reaso.  their  exertions  to  effect  a  total  abolition  of  slavery." 


132  TESTIMONY   OF   THE   CHURCHES. 

A  Committee  of  the  Synod  of  Kentucky,  in  an  address  to  the  Presby 
terians  of  that  State,  says 

"  That  our  negroes  will  be  worse  off,  if  emancipated,  is,  we  feel,  but  a  specious 
pretext  for  lulling  our  own  pangs  of  conscience,  and  answering  the  argument  of  tho 
philanthropist.  None  of  us  believes  that  God  has  so  created  a  whole  race  that  it  is 
better  for  them  to  remain  in  perpetual  bondage." 

EPISCOPAL   TESTIMONY. 

BISHOP  noESLET  says : 

41  Slavery  is  injustice,  which  no  consideration  of  policy  can  extenuate." 
BISHOP  BTJTLEE  Says  : 

"Despicable  as  the  negroes  may  appear  iu  our  eyes,  they  are  the  creatures  of 
God,  and  of  the  race  of  mankind,  for  whom  Christ  died,  and  it  is  inexcusable  to 
keep  them  in  ignorance  of  the  end  for  which  they  were  made,  and  of  the  means 
whereby  they  may  become  partakers  of  the  general  redemption." 

BISHOP  POETEUS  says  : 

"  The  Bible  classes  men-stealers  or  slave-traders  among  the  murderers  of  fathers 
and  mothers,  and  the  most  profane  criminals  on  earth." 

Thomas  Scott,  the  celebrated  Commentator,  says  : 

"  To  number  the  persons  of  men  with  beasts,  sheep  and  horses,  as  the  stock  of  a 
farm,  or  with  bales  of  goods,  as  the  cargo  of  a  ship,  is,  no  doubt,  a  most  detestable 
and  anti- Christian  practice." 

John  Jay,  Esq.,  of  the  City  of  New  York — a  most  exemplary  Episco 
palian — in  a  pamphlet  entitled,  "  Thoughts  on  the  Duty  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  in  Relation  to  Slavery,"  says : 

"  Alas!  for  the  expectation  that  she  would  conform  to  the  spirit  of  her  ancient 
mother  i  She  has  not  merely  remained  a  mnte  and  careless  spectator  of  this  great 
conflict  of  truth  and  justice  with  hypocrisy  and  cruelty,  but  her  very  priests  and 
deacons  may  be  seen  ministering  at  tiic  altar  of  slavery,  offering  their  talents  and 
influence  at  its  unholy  shrine,  and  openly  repeating  the  awful  blasphemy,  that  the 
precepts  of  our  Saviour  sanction  the  system  of  American  slavery.  Her  Northern 
clergy,  with  rare  exceptions,  whatever  they  may  feel  on  the  subject,  rebuke  it 
neither  in  public  nor  in  private,  and  iwr  periodicals,  far  from  advancing  the  pro 
gress  of  abolition,  at  times  oppose  our  societies,  impliedly  defending  slavery,  as 
not  incompatible  with  Christianity,  and  occasionally  withholding  information  use 
ful  to  the  cause  of  freedom." 

A.  writer  in  a  late  number  of  "  The  Anti-Slavery  Churchman,"  pub 
lished  in  Geneva,  "Wisconsin,  speaking  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  Now 
Testament,  says : 

u  This  passage  of  Paul  places  necessary  work  in  the  hands  of  Gospel  ministers. 
Tf  they  preach  the  whole  Gospel,  they  must  preach  what  this  passage  enjoins— and 
if  they  do  this,  they  must  preach  against  American  slavery.  Its  being  connected 
with  politics  does  not  shield  them.  Political  connections  cannot  place  sin  under 
protection.  They  cannot  throw  around  it  guards  that  tho  public  teachers  of  morals 
may  not  pass.  Sin  is  a  violation  of  God's  la\v — and  God's  law  must  be  proclaimed 
and  enforced  at  all  hazards.  This  is  the  business  of  the  messenger  of  God,  and  if 
anything  stands  in  its  way,  it  is  his  right,  rather  it  his  solemn  commission,  to  go 
forward — straightway  to  overpass  the  lines  that  would  shut  him  out,  and  utter  1m 
warnings.  Many  sin's  there  are,  that  in  like  manner,  might  be  shielded.  Fashiun, 
and  rank,  and  business,  are  doing  their  part  to  keep  much  sin  in  respectability,  anil 
excuse  it  from  the  attacks  of  God's  ministers.  But  what  are  those,  that  they  should 
seal  a  minister's  lips— what  more  arc  the  wishes  of  politicians?" 


TESTIMONY   OF   THE   CHUKCHES.  133 

For  further  testimony  from  this  branch  of  the  Christian  system,  if  de 
sired,  we  refer  the  reader  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Tyng,  the  Rev.  Evan  M.  John 
son,  and  the  Rev.  J.  McNamara, — all  Broad  Church  Episcopalians,  whose 
magic  eloquence  and  irresistible  arguments  bid  fair,  at  an  early  day,  to 
win  over  to  the  paths  of  progressive  freedom,  truth,  justice  and 
humanity,  the  greater  number  of  their  High  and  Low  Church  brethren. 

BAPTIST  TESTIMONY. 

Concerning  a  certain  text,  the  Rev.  WED.  H.  Brisbane,  once  a  slave- 
holding  Baptist  in  South  Carolina,  says  : 

"  Paul  was  speaking  of  the  law  having  been  made  for  men-stcalers.  Where  is 
the  record  of  that  law?  It  is  in  Exodus  xxi.  1C,  and  in  these  words:  'He  that 
stealeth  a  man.  and  selleth  him,  or  if  he  be  found  in  his  possession,  he  shall  surely 
be  put  to  death.'  Here  it  will  be  perceived  that  it  was  a  crime  to  sell  the  man,  for 
which  the  seller  must  suffer  death.  "But  it  was  no  less  a  crime  to  hold  him  as  a 
slave,  for  this  also  was  punishable  with  death.  A  man  may  be  kidnapped  out  of 
slavery  into  freedom.  There  was  no  law  against  that.  And  why?  Because  kid 
napping  a  slave  and  placing  him  in  a  condition  of  freedom,  was  only  to  restore  him 
to  his  lost  rights.  But  if  a  man  who  takes  him  becomes  a  slaveholder,  or  a  slave 
seller,  then  lie  is  a  criminal,  liable  to  the  penalty  of  death,  because  he  robs  the  man 
of  liberty.  Perhaps  some  will  say  this  law  was  only  applicable  to  the  first  holder 
of  the  slave,  that  is,  the  original  kidnapper,  but  nol  to  his  successors  who  might 
have  purchased  or  inherited  him.  But  what  is  kidnapping?  Suppose  I  propose  to 
a  neighbor  to  give  him  a  certain  sum  of  money  if  he  will  steal  a  white  child  in  Caro 
lina  and  deliver  him  to  me.  He  steals  him  ;  I  pay  him  the  money  upon  his  deliv 
ering  the  child  to  me.  Is  it  not  my  act  as  fully  as  his  ?  Am  I  not  also  the  thief? 
But  does  it  alter  the  case  whether  I  agree  beforehand  or  not  to  pay  him,  for  the 
child?  He  steals  him,  and  then  sells  him  to  me.  He  is  found  by  his  parents  in  my 
hands.  Will  it  avail  me  to  say  I  purchased  him  and  paid  my  money  for  him  ?  Will 
it  net  be  asked,  Do  you  not  know  that  a  white  person  is  not  merchantable?  And 
shall  I  not  have  to  pay  the  damage  for  detaining  that  child  in  my  service  as  a  slave  ? 
Assuredly,  not  only  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  but  in  the  judgment  of  the  whole  com 
munity,  1  would  be  regarded  a  criminal.  So  when  one  man  steals  another  and  offers 
him  for  sale,  no  one,  in  view  of  the  Divine  law,  can  buy  him,  for  the  reason  that 
the  Divine  law  forbids  that  man  shall  in  the  first  place  be  made  a  merchantable 
article.  The  inquiry  must  be.  if  I  buy,  I  buy  in  violation  of  the  Divine  la\v.  and  it 
will  not  do  for  me  to  plead  that  I  bought  him.  I  have  him  in  possession,  and  L-at 
is  enough,  God  condemns  me  for  it  as  a  man-stealer.  My  having  him  in  possession 
is  evidence  against  me,  and  the  Mosaic  law  says,  if  he  be  found  in  my  hands,  1  must 
die.  Now,  when  Paul  said  the  law  was  made  for  mcn-stealers,  was  it  not  also  say 
ing  the  law  was  made  for  slaveholders  ?  I  am  not  intending  to  apply  this  term  in  a 
harsh  spirit.  But  I  am  bound,  as  I  fear  God,  to  speak  what  I  am  satisfied  is  the  true 
meaning  of  the  apostle." 

In  his  "  Elements  of  Moral  Science,"  the  Rev.  Francis  Wayland,  D.D., 
one  of  the  most  erudite  and  distinguished  Baptists  now  living,  says : 

"  The  moral  precepts  of  the  Bible  are  diametrically  opposed  to  slavery.  They 
are,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself  ,  and  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  tha't 
men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  unto  them. 

"The  application  of  these  precepts  is  universal.  Our  neighbor  is  every  one  whom 
we  may  benefit.  The  obligation  respects  all  things  whatsoever.  The  precept,  then, 
manifestly,  extends  to  men  as  men,  or  men  of  every  condition;  and  if  to  all  things  what 
soever,  certainly  to  a  thing  so  important  as  the  right  to  personal  liberty. 

'•  Again.  By  this  precept,  it  is  made  our  duty  to  cherish  as  tender  and  delicate  a 
respect  for  the  right  which  the  meanest  individual  possesses  over  the  means  of  hap 
piness  bestowed  upon  him  by  God.  as  we  cherish  for  our  own  right  over  our  own 
means  of  happiness,  or  as  we  desire  any  other  individual  to  cherish  for  it.  Now, 
\vere  this  precept  obeyed,  it  is  manifest  that  slavery  could  not  in  fact  exist  for  a 
eiogle  instant.  The  principle  of  the  precept  is  absolutely  subversive  of  the  princi 
lo  of  slavery.  That  of  Mie  one  is  the  entire  equality  ot  right;  that  of  the  rtber. 
uj  ciitire  abs-orpti  jn  of  the  rights  of  one  im  tho  rights  of  the  "other. 


P' 


13-i  TESTIMONY   OF   THE   CHURCHES. 

u  If  any  one  doubts  respecting  the  bearing  of  the  Scripture  precept  npon  this 
;asc.  a  few  plain  questions  may  throw  additional  light  upon  the  subject.  For  instance  : 

i%  DC  tin  precepts  and  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  allow  me  to  derive  my  support 
"rom  a  system  which  extorts  laborfrom  my  fellow-men,  without  allowing  them  any 
voice  in  Vie  equivalent  which  they  shall  receive  ;  and  which  can  only  be  sustained 
by  keeping  them  in  a  state  of  mental  degradation,  and  by  shutting  them  out,  in  u 
great  degree.  fvom  the  means  of  salvation  : 

'•  Would  the  master  be  willing  that  another  person  should  subject  him  to  slavery, 
for  the  same  reasons,  and  on  the  same  grounds  that  he  holds  his  slaves  in  bondage  : 

'•  Would  the  Gospel  allow  us,  if  it  were  in  our  power,  to  reduce  our  fellow-citizens 
of  our  own  color  to  slavery  ?  If  the  Gospnl  be  diametrically  opposed  to  the  princi 
ple  of  slavery,  it  must  be  opposed  to  the  practice  of  slavery  ;  and  therefore,  were 
the  principles  of  the  Gospel  fully  adopted,  slavery  could  not  exist. 

44  The  very  course  which  the  Gospel  takes  on  this  subject,  seems  to  have  been  the 
only  one  that  could  have  been  taken,  in  order  to  effect  the  universal  abolition  of 
slavery.  The  Gospel  was  designed,  not  for  one  race  or  for  one  time,  but  for  all 
races  and  for  all  times.  It  looked  not  at  the  abolition  of  this  form  of  evil  for  that 
age  alone,  but  for  its  universal  abolition.  Hence,  the  important  object  of  its  Author 
was.  to  gain  it  a  lodgment  in  every  part  of  the  known  world:  so  that,  by  its  univer 
sal  diffusion  among  all  classes  of  society,  it  might  quietly  and  peacefully  modify 
and  subdue  the  evil  passions  of  men;  and  thus  without  violence,  work  a  revolution 
iu  the  whole  mass  of  mankind. 

"  If  the  system  be  wrong,  as  we  have  endeavored  to  show,  if  it  be  at  variance 
with  our  dutv  both  to  God  and  to  man,  it  must  be  abandoned.  If  it  be  asked  when, 
I  ask  again  when  shall  a  man  begin  to  cease  doing  wrong?  Is  not  the  answer,  im 
mediately?  If  a  man  is  injuring  us.  do  we  ever  doubt  as  to  the  time  when  he  ought 
to  cease  ?  There  is,  then,  no  doubt  in  respect  to  the  time  when  we  ought  to  cease 
inflicting  injury  upon  ethers." 

Abraham  Booth,  an  eminent  theological  writer  of  the  Baptist  persua 
sion,  says  : 

"I  have  not  a  stronger  conviction  of  scarcely  anytLung,  than  that  slaveholding 
(except  where  the  slave  has  forfeited  his  liberty  by  crimes  against  society),  is 
wicked  and  inconsistent  with  Christian  character.  To  me  it  is  evident,  that  who 
ever  would  purchase  an  innocent  black  ra.m  to  make  him  a  slave,  would  with  equp.i 
readiness  purchase  a  white  one  for  the  same  purpose,  couid  he  do  it  with  equal  im 
punity  and  no  more  disgrace." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Committee  of  the  Baptists  of  Virginia,  m 
1789,  the  following  resolution  was  offered  by  Eld.  John  Lelaud,  and 
adopted : 

"  Resolved.  That  slavery  is  a  violent  deprivation  of  the  rights  of  nature,  and  incon 
sistent  with  Republican  govern^ie.it,  c&Q  therefore  we  recommend  it  to  our  breth 
ren  to  make  use  of  every  measure  to  extirpate  this  horrid  evil  from  the  land  ;  and 
pray  Almighty  God  that  our  r.i-norablo  legislature  may  have  it  in  their  power  to 
proclaim,  the  great  jubilee,  consistent  with  the  principles  of  good  policy." 

METHODIST   TESTIMONY. 

John  TTeslej,  the  celebrated  founder  of  Methodism,  says  : 
"  Men  buyers  are  exactly  on  a  level  with  men  stealers." 
Again,  he  says  : 

"  American  slavery  is  the  vilest  that  ever  saw  the  sun;  it  constitutes  the  sum  of 
nil  villainies." 

The  learned  Dr.  Adam  Clarke,  author  of  a  voluminous  commentary  OP 
the  Scriptures,  says : 

"Slave-dealers,  whether  those  who  carrv  on  the  traffic  in  human  flesh  and  blood, 
or  those  who  steal  a  person  in  order  to  sell  him  into  bondage,  or  those  who  buy 
such  stolen  men  or  women,  no  imtter  of  what  color  or  what  country :  or  the  nations 
who  legalize  or  connive  fit  such  trat'c  :  all  these  are  men-stealers,  and  God  classes 
them  with  the  most  flagitious  of  mortal5!." 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE   dlUECIIES.  135 

One  of  the  present  members  of  the  Black  River  (New  York)  Confer 
ence,  a  gentleman  of  fine  ability,  who  is  zealous  in  every  good  word 
and  work, 

puor.  TTIRAM  MATTISOX,  says : 

"  Tlic  attitude  of  the  American  churches  in  regard  to  slavery — that  parent  of  every 
other  aboraination,is  not  only  strengthening  the  hand*  of  infidelity  against  Christianity 

in  France  and  England,  but  in  every  other  nominally  Christian  country  ;  and  espe 
cially  in  these  United  States.  It  is  sapping  the  very  foundations  of  all  confidence 
in  the  Christian  religion,  in  the  minds  of  tens  of  thousands.  Not  distinguishing " 
between  the  loathsome  cancer  and  the  rest  of  the  body — between  the  counterfeit 
and  the  genuine — they  condemn  the  whole,  and  are  thenceforth  regarded  as  infidels. 
Instead  of  a  slaveholding  religion  they  accept  no  religion.  And  infidelity  has  no 
more  faithful  allies  in  America,  than  the  D.D.'s  and  other  ministers  who  defend,  or 
at  least  apologize  for  American  slavery.  They  are  making  more  infidels  than  all 
the  infidel  books,  and  periodicals,  and  lecturers  in  the  land.  Let  us.  then,  on  this 
account  also — its  tendency  to  infidelity — rise  up  and  put  away  allslaveholding  from 
the  Church  of  Christ." 

Again,  laying  before  us  a  list  of  the  churches  which  are  righteously 
active  in  condemning  and  opposing  slavery,  and  also  of  those  which  aro 
wickedly  passive  in  excusing  and  upholding  it,  he  says  to  his  brother 
Methodists : 

"  Look  at  our  position  as  a  Church  in  the  light  of  these  facts.  Sec  in  what  com 
pany  we  place  ourselves.  Let  us  range  the  anti-slavery  and  pro-slavery  Northern 
Churches  in  parallel  columns,  that  our  shame  may  be  the  more  apparent : 


Slave-holding  Churches. 

1.  OLD  SCHOOL  PRESBYTERIAN. 

2.  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL. 

3.  ROMAN  CATHOLIC. 

4.  METHODIST  Ens.  CHUKCH!" 


Anti- Slavery  Churches. 

1.  FRIENDS,  or  QUAKERS. 

2.  FREE-WILL  BAPTISTS. 

3.  UNITED  BRETHREN. 

4.  ASSOCIATE  PRESBYTERIAN. 
'}.  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS. 

(5.  ORTHODOX  CONGREGATIONAL. 
'!.  GENERAL  BAPTISTS. 

8.  REF'D  PROT.  DITCH  CHURCH. 

9.  NEW  SCHOOL  PRESBYTERIAN. 

10.  UNITARIAN. 

11.  U.VIVERSALISTS  ! 

One  of  the  rules  laid  clown  in  the-  Methodist  Discipline  as  amended  in 
1784,  was  as  follows  : 

':  Every  member  of  our  Society  who  has  slaves  in  his  possession,  shall,  -within 
twelve  months  after  notice  given  to  him  by  the  assistant,  legally  execute  and  record 
an  instrument,  whereby  he  emancipates  and  sets  free  every  slave  in  his  possession." 

Another  rule  was  in  theso  words  : 

"  No  person  holding  slaves  shall  in  future  be  admitted  into  Society,  or  to  the 
Lord's  Supper,  till  he  previously  complies  with  these  rules  concerning  slavery." 

The  answer  to  the  question — "  What  shall  be  done  with  those  who 
"buy  or  sell  slaves,  or  give  them  away  " — is  couched  in  the  following 
language : 

"  They  are  immediately  to  be  expelled,  unless  they  buy  them  on  purpose  to  freo 
them." 


In  1785,  the  voice  of  this  church  was  heard  as  follows  : 

"  We  do  hold  in  the  deepest  abhorrence  the  practice  of  slavery,  and  shall  no 
aae  to  seek  its  destruction,  by  all  wise  and  prudent  means." 

In  1797,  the  Discipline  contained  the  following  wholesome  paragraph 


136  TESTIMONY    OF    THE    CHURCHES. 

"  The  preachers  and  other  members  of  our  Society  are  requested  to  consider  the 
subject  of  Negro  slavery,  with  deep  attention,  and  that  they  impart  to  the  General 
Conference,  through  the  medium  of  the  Yearly  Conferences,  or  otherwise,  any 
important  thoughts  on  the  subject,  that  the  Conference  may  have  full  light,  in 
order  to  take  further  steps  toward  eradicating  this  enormous  evil  from  that  part 
of  the  Church  of  God  with  which  they  are  connected.  The  annual  Conferences  arc 
directed  to  draw  up  addresses  for  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  to  the 
legislatures  of  those  States  in  which  no  general  laws  have  been  passed  for  that  pur 
pose.  These  addresses  shall  urge,  in  the  most  respectful  but  pointed  manner,  the 
necessity  of  a  law  for  the  gradual  emancipation  of  slaves.  Proper  committees 
shall  be  appointed  by  the  Annual  Conferences,  out  of  the  most  respectable  of  our 
friends,  for  conducting  the  business  ;  and  presiding  elders,  elders,  deacons,  and 
travelling  preachers,  shall  procure  as  many  proper  signatures  as  possible  to  the 
addresses,  and  give  all  the  assistance  in  their  power,  in  every  respect,  to  aid  the 
committees,  and  to  forward  the  blessed  undertaking.'  Let  this  be  continued  from 
year  to  year,  till  the  desired  end  be  accomplished." 

CATHOLIC   TESTIMONY. 

It  has  been  only  about  twenty-two  years  since  Pope  Gregory  XVI. 
immortalized  himself  by  issuing  the  famous  Bull  against  slavery,  from 
which  the  following  is  an  extract : 

"  Placed  as  we  are  on  the  Supreme  seat  of  the  apostles,  and  acting,  though  by 
no  merits  of  our  own,  as  the  vicegerent  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,"*who, 
through  his  great  mercy,  condescended  to  make  himself  man,  and  to  die  for  the 
redemption  of  the  world,  we  regard  as  a  duty  devolving  on  our  pastoral  functions, 
that  we  endeavor  to  turn  aside  our  faithful  flocks  entirely  from  the  inhuman  traffic 
in  negroes,  or  any  other  human  beings  whatever.  .  .  .  In  progress  of  time,  as 
the  clouds  of  heathen  superstition  became  gradually  dispersed,  circumstances 
reached  that  point,  that  during  several  centuries  there  were  no  slaves  alior-'ed 
amongst  the  great  majority  of  the  Christian  nations  ;  but  with  grief  we  are  com 
pelled  to  add,  that  there  afterwards  arose,  even  among  the  faithful,  a  race  of  men, 
who,  basely  blinded  by  the  appetite  and  desire  of  sordid  lucre,  did  not  hesitate  to 
reduce,  in  remote  regions  of  the  earth,  Indians,  negroes,  and  other  wretched  beings, 
to  the  misery  of  slavery  ;  or,  finding  the  trade  established  and  augmented,  to  assist 
the  shameful  crime  of  others.  Nor  did  many  of  the  most  glorious  of  the  Roman 
Pontiffs  omit  severely  to  reprove  their  conduct,  as  injurious  to  their  soul's  health, 
and  disgraceful  to  the  Christian  name.  Among  these  may  be  especially  quoted  the 
bull  of  Paul  III.,  which  bears  the  date  of  the  2:)th  of  May,  1587.  addressed  to  the 
Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  and  another  still  more  comprehensive,  by  Urban 
VIII.,  dated  the  22d  of  April,  163G,  to  the  collector  Jurius  of  the  Apostolic  cham 
ber  in  Portugal,  most  severely  castigating  by  name  those  who  presumed  to  subject 
either  East  or  West  Indians  to  slavery,  to  sell,  buy,  exchange,  or  give  them  away. 
to  separate  them  from  their  wives  and  children,  despoil  them  of  their  goods  and 
property,  to  bring  or  transmit  them  to  other  places,  or  by  any  means  to  deprive 
them  of  liberty,  or  retain  them  in  slavery  ;  also  most  severely  castigating  those  who 
should  presume  or  dare  to  afford  counsel,  aid.  favor  or  assistance,  under  any  pre 
tence,  or  borrowed  color,  to  those  doing  the  aforesaid  ;  or  should  preach  or  teach 
that  it  is  lawful,  or  should  otherwise  presume  or  dare  to  cooperate,  by  any  possible 
means,  with  the  aforesaid.  .  .  .  Wherefore,  we,  desiring  to  divert  this  disgrace 
from  the  whole  confines  of  Christianity,  having  summoned  several  of  our  venerable 
brothers,  their  Eminences  the  Cardinals,  of  the  II.  II.  Church,  to  our  council,  and, 
having  maturely  deliberated  on  the  whole  matter,  pursuing  the  footsteps  of  our  pre 
decessors,  admonished  by  our  apostolical  authority,  and  urgently  invoke  in  the  Lord, 
all  Christians,  of  whatever  condition,  that  none  henceforth  dare  to  subject  to  slavery, 
unjustly  persecute,  or  despoil  of  their  goods.  Indians,  negroes,  or  other  classes  of 
men,  or  be  accessories  to  others,  or  furnish  ihem  aid  or  assistance  in  so  doin"  ;  and 
on  no  account  henceforth  to  exercise  that  inhuman  traffic  by  which  negro  ;s  arc 
reduced  to  slavery,  as  if  they  were  not  men.  but  automata  or  chattels,  and  ai  ?  sold 
in  defiance  of  all  the  laws  of  justice  and  humanity,  and  devoted  to  sevcj  a  and 
intolerable  labors.  We  further  reprobate,  by  our  "apostolical  authority,  til  the 
above-described  offences  as  utterly  unworthy  of  the  Christian  name  ;  and  by  the 
same  authority  we  rigidly  prohibit'  and  interdict  all  and  every  Individual,  whether 
ecclesiastical  or  laical,  from  presuming  to  defend  that  commerce  in  negro  ".laves 
under  pretence  or  borrowed  color,  or  to  teach  or  publish  in  any  manner,  p.  blicly 
or  privately,  things  contrary  to  the  admonitions  which  we  have  given  ir 
letters. 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE   CHriiCHES.  137 

"  And,  finally,  that  these,  our  letters,  may  be  rendered  more  apparent  to  all, 
>nd  that  no  person  may  allege  any  ignorance  thereof,  we  decree  and  order  that  it 
Jhall  be  published  according  to  custom,  arid  copies  thereof  be  properly  affixed  to 
the  gates  of  St.  Peter  and  of  the  Apostolic  Chancel,  every  and  in  like  manner  to 
the  General  Court  of  Mount  Citatorio,  and  in  the  tield  of  the  Campus  Floras  and 
also  through  the  city,  by  one  of  our  heralds,  according  to  aforesaid  custom. 

u  Given  at  Rome,  at  the  Palace  of  Santa  Maria  Major,  under  the  seal  of  the 
fisherman,  on  the  3d  day  of  December.  1837.  and  in  the  ninth  year  of  our  pon 
tificate. 

"  Countersigned  by  Cardinal  A.  Lambrnschini." 

Wo  have  already  quoted  the  language  of  Pope  Leo  X.,  who  says : 

"  Not  only  does  the  Christian  religion,  but  nature  herself,  cry  out  against  the 
state  of  slavery." 

The  Abbe  Kaynal  says  : 

"  He  who  supports  slavery  is  the  enemy  of  the  human  race.  He  divides  it  into 
two  societies  of  legal  assassins,  the  oppressors  and  the  oppressed.  I  shall  not  be 
afraid  to  cite  to  the  tribunal  of  reason  and  justice  those  governments  which  tole 
rate  this  cruelty,  or  which  even  arc  not  ashamed  to  make  it  the  basis  of  their 
power." 

From  the  proceedings  of  a  Massachusetts  Anti-slavery  Convention  in 
1855,  we  make  the  following  extract : 

"  Henry  Kemp,  a  Roman  Catholic,  came  forward  to  defend  the  Romish  Church 
in  reply  to  Mr.  Foster.  He  claimed  that  the  Catholic  Church  is  thoroughly  anti 
slavery — as  thoroughly  as  even  his  friend  Foster." 

Thus  manfully  do  men  of  pure  hearts  and  noble  minds,  whether  in 
Church  or  State,  and  without  regard  to  sect  or  party,  lift  up  their 
voices  against  the  wicked  and  pernicious  system  of  human  slavery. 
Tims  they  speak,  and  thus  they  are  obliged  to  speak,  if  they  speak  at 
all ;  it  is  only  the  voice  of  Nature,  Justice,  Truth,  and  Love,  that  issues 
from  them.  The  divine  principle  in  man  prompts  him  to  speak  and 
strike  for  Freedom ;  the  diabolical  principle  within  him  prompts  him  tu 
speak  and  strike  for  slavery. 

From  those  churches  which  are  now — as  all  churches  ought  to  be, 
and  will  be,  ere  the  world  becomes  Christianized — thoroughly  indoctrin 
ated  in  the  principles  of  freedom,  we  do  not,  as  already  intimated,  deem 
it  particularly  necessary  to  bring  forward  new  arguments  in  opposition 
to  slavery.  If,  however,  the  reader  would  be  pleased  to  hear  from  tho 
churches  to  which  wo  chiefly  allude — and,  by  the  by,  he  might  hear 
from  them  with  much  profit  to  himself — we  respectfully  refer  him  to 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  George  B.  Cheevor.  Joseph  P.  Thompson,  Theo 
dore  Parker,  E.  II.  Chapin,  and  II.  W.  Bellows,  of  the  North,  and  to 
M.  I).  Coinvay,  John  G.  Fee,  James  S.  Davis,  Daniel  Worth,  and  W.  E, 
Lincoln,  of  the  South.  All  these  reverend  gentlemen,  ministers  of  dif 
ferent  denominations,  feel  it  their  duty  to  preach  against  slavery,  and, 
to  their  honor  be  it  said,  they  do  preach  against  it  with  unabated  zeal 
and  success.  Our  earnest  prayer  is,  that  Heaven  may  enable  them, 
their  contemporaries  and  successors,  to  preach  against  it  with  such 
energy  ahd  effect,  as  will  cause  it  in  due  time,  to  disappear  forever 
from  the  soil  of  our  Republic. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

BIBLE  TESTIMONY. 

Quench,  righteous  God,  the  thirst 
That  Congo's  sons  hath  curs'd. — 

The  thirst  for  gold  ! 
Shall  not  thy  thunders  speak, 
Where  Mammon's  altars  reek, 
"Where  maids  and  matrons  shriek, 

Hound,  bleeding,  sold  ? 

PlERPONT. 

EVKKT  person  who  has  read  the  Bible,  and  who  has  a  proper  under 
standing  of  its  leading  moral  precepts,  feels  in  his  own  conscience, 
that  it  is  an  original  and  complete  anti-slavery  book.  In  a  crude  state 
of  society — -in  a  barbarous  age — when  men  were  in  a  manner  destitute 
of  wholesome  IRVTS,  either  human  or  divine,  it  is  possible  that  a  mild  form 
of  slavery  may  have  been  tolerated,  and  even  regulated,  as  an  insti 
tution  clothed  with  the  importance  of  temporary  recognition  ;  but  the 
Deity  never  approved  it,  and  for  the  very  reason  that  it  is  impossible  for 
him  to  do  wrong,  he  never  will,  never  can  approve  it.  The  worst  sys 
tem  of  servitude  of  which  we  have  any  account  in  the  Bible — and,  by 
the  way,  it  furnishes  no  account  of  anything  so  had  as  slavery  (the  evil- 
one  and  his  hot  homeaJ^ne  excepted) — was  far  less  rigorous  and  atrocious 
than  that  now  established  in  the  Southern  States  of  this  Confederacy. 
Even  that  system,  however,  the  worst,  which  seems. to  have  been  prac 
tised  to  a  considerable  extent  by  those  venerable  old  fogies,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  was  one  of  the  monstrous  inventions  of  Satan  that 
God  "winked"  at;  and,  to  the  mind  of  the  biblical  scholar,  nothing 
can  be  more  evident  than  that  He  determined  of  old,  that  it  should,  in, 
due  time,  be  abolished.  To  say  that  the  Bible  sanctions  slavery  is 
equivalent  to  saying  that  the  sun  loves  darkness;  to  say  that  one  man 
was  created  to  domineer  over  another  is  to  call  in  question  the  justice, 
mercy  and  goodness  of  God. 

We  will  now  listen  to  a  limited  number  of  the 

PRECEPTS    AND    SAYIXGS    OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT. 

£i  Proclaim  liberty  throughout  all  the  land,  unto  all  the  .inhabitants  thereof." 

"  He  that  stealeth  a  man,  and  selleth  him,  or  if  he  be  found  in  Lis  hand,  he  shall 
surely  be  put  to  death." 


BIBLE   TESTIMONY.  139 

<c  Whoso  stoppeth  his  ears  at  the  cry  of  the  poor,  he  also  shall  cry,  but  shall 
not  be  heard." 

"  He  that  opprcsscth  the  poor  rcproacheth  his  Maker." 

"Relieve  Ihc  oppressed." 

"  Envy  thou  not  the  oppressor,  and  choose  none  of  his  waj'S." 

"Let  the  oppressed  go  free." 

"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

"  Thou  shalt  not  respect  the  person  of  the  poor,  nor  honor  the  person  of  the 
mighty  ;  but,  in  righteousness  shalt  thou  judge  thy  neighbor." 

"  The  wages  of  him  that  is  hired  shall  not  abide  with  thee  all  night  until  the 
morning." 

"  Do  justice  to  the  afflicted  and  needy ;  rid  them  out  of  the  hand  of  the  wicked." 

"Execute  judgment  and  justice;  take  away  your  exactions  from  my  people, 
saith  the  Lord  God." 

"  Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  ;  ye  have  not  hearkened  unto  me,  in  proclaiming 
liberty,  every  one  to  his  brother,  and  every  man  to  his  neighbor  :  behold.  I  pro 
claim  a  liberty  for  you,  saith  the  Lord,  to  the  sword,  to  the  pestilence,  and  to  the 
famine  ;  and  I  will  make  you  to  be  removed  into  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth." 

"T  will  be  a  swift  witness  against  the  sorcerers,  and  against  the  adulterers,  and 
against  false  swearers,  and  against  those  that  oppress  the  hireling  in  his  wages,  the 
widow,  and  the  fatherless,  and  that  turn  aside  the  stranger  from  his  right,  and  fear 
not  me,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 

"  As  the  partridge  sstteth  on  eggs,  and  Iwtcheth  them  not :  so  he  that  getteth 
riches,  and  not  by  right,  shall  leave  them  in  the  midst  of  his  clays,  and  at  his  end 
.shall  be  a  fool." 

And  now  let  us  listen  to  a  few  selected 

PRECEPTS   AND   SATING9   OF    THE   NEW    TESTAMENT. 
"  Call  no  man  master,  neither  be  ye  called  masters." 
"Where  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty." 
"  If  thou  maycst  be  made  free,  use  it  rather." 
"  Do  good  to  all  men,  as  ye  have  opportunity." 
"  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire." 

"  All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to 
them." 

"  Be  kindly  affectionate  one  to  another  with  brotherly  love  ;  in  honor  preferring 
one  another." 

"  Stand  fast  therefore  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath  made  you  free,  and  bo 
not  entangled  again  with  the  yoke  of  bondage." 

Some  years  ago  a  clerical  sycophant  of  the  slave  power  had  the  teme 
rity  to  publish  a  book  or  pamphlet  entitled  "  Bible  defence  of  Slavery," 
which  the  Baltimore  Sun,  in  the  course  of  a  caustic  criticism,  handled  ill 
the  following  manner : 


140  BIBLE   TESTIMONY. 

"  Bible  defence  of  slavery !  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  Bible  defence  of  slavery 
at  the  present  day.  Slavery  in  the  Jnited  States  is  a  social  institution,  originating 
in  the  convenience  and  cupidity  of  our  ancestors,  existing  by  State  la\vs.  and 
recognized  to  a  certain  extent— for  the  recovery  of  slave  property— by  the  Consti 
tution.  And  nobody  would  pretend  that,  if  it  were  inexpedient  and  'unprofitable 
for  any  man  or  any  State  to  continue  to  hold  slaves,  they  would  be  bound  to  do  so 
on  the  ground  of  a  '  Bible  defence  '  of  it.  Slavery  is  recorded  in  the  Bible,  and  ap 
proved,  with  many  degrading  characteristics.  War  is  recorded  in  the  Bible,  and 
approved,  under  Avhat  seems  to  us  the  extreme  of  cruelty.  But  are  slavery  and 
war  to  endure  for  ever  because  we  find  them  in  the  Bible?  or  are  they  to  cease  at 
once  and  for  ever  because  the  Bible  inculcates  peace  and  brotherhood?" 

The  Haleys,  Legrees  and  Peterkins  of  the  South — boors  of  Vandalic 
hearts  and  minds — are,  ever  and  anon,  manifesting  some  of  the  most 
palpable  and  ridiculous  idiosyncrasies  of  human  nature.  Ignorant  of 
even  the  first  lessons  of  a  hornbook,  they  bandy  among  themselves,  in 
traditionary  order,  certain  garbled  passages  of  Scripture  such,  for 
instance,  as  that  concerning  poor  old  besotted  Noah's  intemperate  cnrso 
of  Ham,  which,  in  shame  and  pity  be  it  said,  they  regard,  or  pretend  to 
regard,  as  investing  them  with  full  and  perfect  license  to  practise  and 
perpetuate  their  most  unhallowed  system  of  iniquity.  Such  are  the 
hardened,  crafty  creatures  in  human  form,  who,  following  the  example 
of  their  subtle  sire,  when  he  perched  himself  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  tem 
ple  at  Jerusalem,  quote  Scripture,  without  even  the  semblance  of  a  blush, 
in  the  prosecution  of  their  treasons,  strategerns  and  spoils.  Such  are 
the  veritable  actors,  who,  with  "Southside  Doctors  of  Divinity,"  Bible 
in  hand,  as  prompters,  are  unceasingly  performing  the  horrible  tragedy 
of  Human  Slavery.  From  all  such  gross  and  irreverent  distorters  <•/ 
Biblical  truth,  good  Lord  deliver  uel 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING   WITNESSES. 

I\  was  the  intention  of  the  fathers  of  the  Constitution  that  liberty  should  be  national  an! 
slavery  sectional.  James  Madison,  himself  a  slaveholder,  one  of  the  framers  of  the  Coiiititu- 
tion,  afior\v;ird  Governor  of  Virgini;i,  and  then  President  of  the  United  States,  tells  us  why 
Blavery  was  not  mentioned  in  that  instrument.  He  said  that,  when  the  institution  of  shivery 
had  teased  to  exist  in  this  land,  they  did  not  wish  the  memory  cf  it  to  remain  on  record. 
.  .  .  .  Shadows  of  the  days  that  are  past  gather  around  me.  I  am  standing  as  I  have 
stood,  as  a  reed  shaken  by  the  wind,  as  the  voice  of  cue  crying  in  the  wilderness.  What  ar 
gument  have  I  not,  exhausted,  to  what  sentiment  have  I  not  appealed?  And  I  have  called 
upon  every  living  thing  in  vain ;  yet  when  I  remember  that  all  the  experience  of  the  ages  is 
concentrated  in  our  Constitution,  I  return  once  more  to '.he  charge,  and  I  would  that  my  voica 
could  extend  to  every  palace,  and  to  every  cabin  throughout  this  wide  Republic,  that  I  might 
say  to  you,  Arouse  from  your  fatal  delusion  ;  liberty  and  slavery  cannot  coexist ;  one  or  the 
other  must  die  !— CASSIUS  SI.  CLAT. 

THE  conflict  between  Freedom  and  Slavery  is  not  simply  a  conflict  be 
tween  two  diverse  systems  of  labor,  the  one  of  which  recognizes,  while 
the  other  ignores,  the  manhood  of  the  laborer ;  nor  merely  between  two 
diverse  policies,  the  one  of  which  tends  to  enrich,  and  the  other  to  im 
poverish  society  ;  but  it  is,  preeminently,  a  conflict  between  civilization 
with  all  its  elevating  and  ameliorating  influences,  on  the  one  side,  and 
barbarism  with  all  its  rudeness  and  savagery,  its  ignorance  and  contempt 
of  humanity,  on  the  other.  The  very  existence  of  slavery  is  incompati 
ble  with  the  highest  order  of  social  life.  Fetich-worship  does  not  more 
certainly  indicate  the  degradation  of  the  religious  ideas  of  a  people 
than  does  the  chattelization  of  humanity  mark  an  incomplete  civilization. 
This  element  of  barbarism,  lingering  in  society  wherever  slavery  lingers, 
makes  itself  particularly  manifest  in  the  present  insane  efforts  of  the 
oligarchy  to  reopen  the  foreign  slave  trade,  not  only  at  the  expense  of 
humanity  and  religion,  but  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  national  honor,  and  our 
position  among  the  moral  forces  of  the  world. 

How  strikingly  contrasts  with  this  savagery  of  barbarism  the  present 
attitude  of  the  great  Russian  Empire,  as  represented  in  the  policy  of  the 
reigning  emperor,  Alexander  the  Second !  With  a  far-seeing  wisdom, 
which  takes  him  out  of  the  mob  of  vulgar  potentates,  and  vindicates  the 
kingship  that  belongs  to  a  right  royal  nature,  he  has  magnanimously  re 
solved  on  the  abolition  of  serfdom  throughout  his  vast  empire.  The  mag 
nitude  of  the  work  proposed,  considered  simply  in  itself,  and  its  c^ifl 

141 


142  TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING   WITNESSES. 

greater  magnitude,  considered  in  its  far-reaching  consequences,  nre  be 
yond  the  grasp  of  any  ordinary  capacity,  and  must  command  for  the 
young  emperor,  who  has  determinedly  given  himself  to  it.  the  sympathy 
and  admiration  of  all  true  statesmen,  philanthropists,  and  friends  of  free 
dom  throughout  the  world.  His  enterprise  is  a  mightier  one  than  thai 
which  tasked  the  energies  of  his  renowned  ancestor,  Peter  the  Great; 
and  its  successful  accomplishment  will  give  him  a  far  more  legitimate 
and  lasting  claim  on  the  love  and  reverence  of  mankind.  The  one  con 
solidated  a  great  empire,  the  other  will  add  millions  of  loyal  subjects  to 
it,  by  taking  them  out  of  the  category  of  chattels,  and  giving  them  their 
proper  status  in  the  ranks  of  humanity.  That  this  grand  project  will 
be  crowned  with  success,  the  wisdom  and  energy  with  which  the  young 
emperor  has  set  himself  to  the  task,  forbid  us  lo  doubt.  And  how  it 
shames  the  despots  of  our  own  land,  intent  not  only  on  the  perpetuation 
of  their  pet  barbarism,  but  on  plunging  the  country  into  a  still  deeper 
slough  of  infamy  and  peril,  by  a  reopening  of  the  African  slave  trade, 
with  all  the  bloody  and  sickening  atrocities  which  it  involves  !  Verily, 
the  boasted  enlightenment  of  our  slavery  propagandists  is  about  on  a  par 
with  that  of  New  Zealand,  and  may  Avell  challenge  the  admiration  of 
*' South-side  Doctors  of  Divinity,"  who  devoutly  regard  the  kidnapper 
as  God's  divinest  messenger  of  salvation  to  the  heathen  world  ! 

But  a  truce  to  these  thoughts  of  men  and  measures  abroad,  and  nov> 
to  the  contemporaneous  Alexanders  and  others  of  our  own  country,  be 
ginning  with 

WILLIAM   II.    SEWARD. 

In  his  masterly  speech  at  Kochester,  on  Monday,  Oct.  25, 1858,  Senator 
Seward  said : 

"  Free  labor  and  slave  labor — these  antagonistic  systems  are  continually  coming 
into  close  contact,  and  collision  results.  Shall  I  tell  you  what  this  collision  means? 
They  who  think  it  is  accidental,  unnecessary,  the  work  of  interested  or  fanatical 
agitators,  and  therefore  ephemeral,  mistake  the  case  altogether.  It  is  an  irrepres 
sible  conflict  between  opposing  and  enduring  forces,  and  it  means  that  the  United 
States  must  and  will,  sooner  or  later,  become  either  entirely  a  slaveholding  nation, 
or  entirely  a  free-labor  nation.  Either  the  cotton  arid  rice  fields  of  South  Carolina 
and  the  sugar  plantations  of  Louisiana  will  ultimately  be  tilled  by  free  labor,  and 
Charleston  and  New  Orleans  become  marts  for  legitimate  merchandise  alone,  or 
else  the  rye  fields  and  wheat  fields  of  Massachusetts  and  New  York  must  again  be 
surrendered  by  their  farmers  to  slave  culture  and  to  the  production  of  slaves,  and 
Boston  and  New  York  become  once  more  markets  for  trade  in  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  men." 

At  Buffalo,  Friday,  Oct.  19,  1855,  he  said : 

"  I  have  seen  slavery  in  the  slave  States,  and  freedom  in  the  free  States.  I  have 
seen  both  slavery  and  freedom  in  this  State.  I  know  too  well  the  evils  of  the  for 
mer  to  be  willing  to  spare  any  effort  to  prevent  their  return.  The  experience  of 
New  York  tells  the  whole  argument  against  slavery  extension,  the  whole  argument 
for  universal  freedom.  Suppose  that,  fifty  years  ago.  New  York,  like  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  had  clung  to  slavery,  where  now  would  have  been  these  three  compo 
site  millions  of  freemen,  the  choice  and  flower  of  Europe  and  America?  In  that 
case,  would  superstition  and  false  national  pride  have  needed  to  organize  a  secret 
jabal,  affiliated  by  unlawful  oaths,  to  proscribe  the  exile  and  his  children  for  their 
nativity  or  their  conscience'  sake  ?  Where  would  then  have  been  the  Erie  Canal, 
the  Genesec-  Valley  Canal,  the  Oswego  Carnal,  the  Seneca  and  Cayuga  Canal,  the 


TESTIMONY   OF  LIVING   WITNESSES.  HS 

Crookc,;  f^akc  Canal,  the  Chcmung  Canal,  the  Chenango  Canal,  the  Black  River 
Canal,  tlie  Champlain  Canal— where  the  imperial  New  York  Central  Railroad,  th& 
Erie  Railroad,  and  the  Ogdensburgh  Railroad,  with  their  branches  penetrating  not 
only  every  inhabited  district  in  this  State,  but  every  inhabited  region  also  in  adja 
cent  States  and  in  British  America?  Where  would  have  been  the  colleges  anil 
academies,  and.  above  all,  the  free  common  schools,  yielding  instruction  to  chil 
dren  of  all  sects  and  in  all  languages?  Where  the  asylums  and  other  public  char 
ities,  and,  above  all,  that  noble  emigrant  charity  which  crowns  the  State  with  such 
distinguished  honor  ?  Where  these  ten  thousand  churches  and  cathedrals,  renew 
ing  on  every  recurring  Sabbath  day  the  marvel  of  Pentecost,  when  the  sojourner 
from  every  land  hears  the  Gospel  of  Christ  preached  to  him  in  his  own  tongue  ? 
Where  would  have  been  the  steamers,  the  barges,  brigs,  and  schooners,  which 
crowd  this  harbor  of  Buffalo,  bringing  hither  the  productions  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  of  the  Gulf  coast,  in  exchange  for  the  fabrics  of  the  Atlantic  coast  and 
of  Europe,  and  of  the  teas  and  spices  of  Asia?  Where  the  coasting  vessels,  the 
merchant  ships,  the  clippers,  the  whale  ships,  and  the  ocean  mail  steamers,  which 
are  rapidly  concentrating  in  our  great  seaport  the  commerce  of  the  world?  'Where 
the  American  Navy,  at  once  the  representative  and  champion  of  the  cause  of  uni 
versal  Republicanism  ?  Where  your  inventors  of  steamboats,  of  electric  telegraph?, 
and  of  planing  machines — where  your  ingenious  artisans — where  your  artists — 
where  your  mighty  Press,  the  Courier  and  Enquirer,  the  Tribune,  the  Times,  and 
even  the  Herald  itself,  defender  of  slavery  as  it  is  ?  Where  your  twenty  cities— 
and  where,  above  all,  the  merry,  laughing  agricultural  industry  of  native-born  and 
exotic  laborers,  enlivening  the  whole  broad  landscape,  from  the  Lake  coast  to  the 
Ocean's  side  ?  Go,  ask  Virginia — go,  ask  even  noble  Maryland,  expending  as  she 
is  a  giant's  strength  in  the  serpent's  coils,  to  show  you  her  people,  canals,  rail 
roads,  universities,  schools,  charities,  commerce,  cities,  and  cultivated  acres.  Her 
silence  is  your  expressive  answer." 

At  Albany,  Friday,  Oct.  12,  1855,  lie  said: 

"  So  long  as  the  Republican  party  shall  be  firm  and  faithful  to  the  Constitution, 
the  Union,  and  the  Rights  of  Man,  1  shall  serve  it,  with  the  reservation  of  that  per 
sonal  independence  which  is  my  birthright,  but  at  the  same  time  with  the  zeal  and 
devotion  that  patriotism  allows  and  enjoins.  I  do  not  know,  and  personally  I  do 
not  greatly  care,  that  it  shall  work  out  its  great  ends  this  year,  or  the  next,  or  in  my 
lifetime ;  because  I  know  that  those  ends  are  ultimately  sure,  and  that  time  and 
trial  are  the  elements  which  make  all  great  reformations  sure  and  lasting.  I  have 
not  thus  far  lived  for  personal  ends  or  temporary  fame,  and  I  shall  not  begin  so  late 
to  live  or  labor  for  them.  I  have  hoped  that  I  might  leave  my  country  somewhat 
worthier  of  a  lofty  destiny,  and  the  rights  of  human  nature  somewhat  safer.  A 
reasonable  ambition  must  always  be  satisfied  with  sincere  and  practical  endeavors. 
%  If,  among  those  who  shall  come  after  us,  there  shall  be  any  curious  inquirer  who 
shall  fall  upon  a  name  so  obscure  as  mine,  he  shall  be  obliged  to  confess  that, 
however  unsuccessfully  I  labored  for  generous  ends,  yet  that  I  nevertheless  was 
ever  faithful,  ever  hopeful." 

SALMON  P.    CHASE. 

Addressing  the  Southern  and  Western  Liberty  Convention,  at  Gin 
cimiati,  June  11,  1845,  Mr.  Chase  used  the  following  unreserved,  appro 
priate  language : 

"  It  is  our  duty,  and  our  purpose,  to  rescue  the  government  from  the  control  of 
the  slaveholders  ;  to  harmonize  its  practical  administration  with  the  provisions  of 
the  Constitution,  and  to  secure  to  all,  without  exception,  and  without  partiality, 
the  rights  which  the  Constitution  guarantees.  We  believe  that  slaveholding,  in  the 
United  States,  is  the  source  of  numberless  evils,  moral,  social  and  political ;  that 
it  hinders  social  progress;  that  it  embitters  public  and  private  intercourse  ;  that  it 
degrades  us  as  individuals,  as  States  and  as  a  nation ;  that  it  holds  back  our  country 
'rom  a  splendid  career  of  greatness  and  glory.  We  are.  therefore,  resolutely, 
inflexibly,  at  all  times,  and  under  all  circumstances,  hostile  to  its  longer  continu 
ance  in  our  land.  We  believe  that  its  removal  can  be  effected  peacefully,  con 
stitutionally,  without  real  injury  to  any,  with  the  greatest  benefit  to  all. 

"We  propose  to  effect  this  by  repealing  all  legislation,  and  discontinuing  all  action, 
in  favor  of  slavery  at  home  and  abroad ;  by  prohibiting  the  practice  of  slaveholding  in 
all  places  of  exclusive  national  jurisdiction,  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  in 


144:  TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING   WITNESSES. 

vessels  upon  the  seas,  in  forts,  arsenals,  navy  yards ;  by  forbidding  the  employment 
of  slaves  upon  any  public  work ;  by  adopting  resolutions  in  Congress,  declaring 
that  slaveholding,  in  all  States  created  out  <*f  national  territories,  is  unconstitutional, 
and  recommending  to  the  others  the  immediate  adoption  of  measures  for  its 
extinction  \vithiri  their  respective  limits  ;  and  by  electing  and  appointing  to  public 
station  such  men,  and  only  such  men,  as  openly  avow  our  principles,  and  will 
honestly  carry  out  our  measures." 

CASSITTS   M.    CLAY. 

Of  the  great  number  of  good  speeches  made  by  members  of  the  Re 
publican  p.irty  during  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1850,  it  is,  AVCJ 
believe,  pretty  generally  admitted  that  the  best  one  was  made  by  Mi . 
Clay,  of  Kentucky,  who,  at  the  Tabernacle,  in  Xew  York  city,  October 
24th,  said: 

"  If  there  are  no  manufactures,  there  is  no  commerce.  In  vain  do  the  slave 
holders  go  to  Knoxvillc,  to  Nashville,  to  Memphis  and  to  Charleston,  and  resolve 
that  they  will  have  nothing  to  do  w.ith  these  Abolition  eighteen  millions  of  Northern 
people ;  that  they  will  build  their  own  vessels,  manufacture  their  own  goods,  ship 
their  own  products  to  foreign  countries  and  break  down  New  York.  Philadelphia 
and  Boston  !  Again,  they  resolve  and  rcresolve,  and  yet  there  is  not  a  single  ton 
more  shipped,  and  not  a  single  article  added,  to  the  wealth  of  the  South.  But, 
gentlemen,  they  never  invite  such  men  as  I  am  to  attend  their  conventions.  They 
know  that  I  would  tell  them  that  slavery  is  the  cause  of  their  poverty,  and  that  I 
will  tell  them  that  what  the}' are  aiming  at  is  the  dissolution  of  the  Union — that,  they 
may  be  prepared  to  strike  for  that  whenever  the  nation  rises.  They  well  know 
that  by  slave  labor  the  very  propositions  which  they  make  can  never  be  realized; 
yet,  when  we  show  these  things,  they  cry  out,  '  Oh,  Cotton  is  King  !'  But  wheu 
we  look  at  the  statistics,  we  tiud  that  so  far  from  Cotton  being  King,  Grass  13  King. 
There  are  nine  articles  of  staple  productions  which  are  larger  than  that  of  coltou 
in  this  country. 

"  I  suppose  it  does  not  follow,  because  slavery  is  endeavoring  to  modify  the  great 
dicta  of  our  fathers,  that  cotton  and  free  labor  are  incompatible.  In  the  extreme 
South,  at  New  Orleans,  the  laboring  men — the  stevedores  and  hackmen  on  the 
levee,  where  the  heat  is  intensified  by  the  proximity  01  the  red  brick  buildings — are 
all  white  men,  and  they  are  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  health.  But  how  about 
cotton?  I  am  informed  by  a  friend  of  mine — himself  a  slaveholder,  and  therefore 
good  authority — that  in  Northwestern  Texas,  among  the  German  settlements,  who, 
true  to  their  national  instincts,  will  not  employ  the  labor  of  a  slave,  they  produce 
more  cotton  to  the  acre,  and  of  a  better  quality,  and  selling  at  prices  from  a  cent 
to  a  cent  and  a  half  a  pound  higher  than  that  produced  by  slave  labor.  This  is  an 
experiment  that  illustrates  what  I  have  always  held,  that  whatever  is  right  is 
expedient." 

JOHN   CHAELES   FEEMOXT. 

Accepting  his  nomination  for  the  Presidency,  in  1856,  Mr.  Fremont, 
one  of  the  noblest  sons  of  the  South,  said  : 

"I  heartily  concur  in  all  movements  which  have  for  their  object  the  repair  of  tho 
mischiefs  arising  from  the  violation  of  good  faith  in  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  1  am  opposed  to  slavery  in  the  abstract,  and  upon  principles  sus 
tained  and  made  habitual  by  long-settled  convictions.  I  am  inflexibly  opposed  to  its 
extension  on  this  continent  beyond  its  present  limits. 

"  The  great  body  of  nou-slaveholdiug  freemen,  including  those  of  the  South, 
upon  whose  welfare  slavery  is  an  oppression,  will  discover  that  the  power  of  the 
general  government  over  the  public  lands  may  be  beneficially  exerted  to  advance 
their  interests  and  secure  their  independence ;  knowing  this,  their  suffrages  Avill 
not  be  wanting  to  maintain  that  authority  in  the  Union,  which  is  absolutely 
essential  to  the  maintenance  of  their  own  liberties,  and  which  has  more  than  onco 
indicated  the  purpose  of  disposing  of  the  public  lauds  in  such  a  way  as  would 
make  every  settler  upon  them  a  freeholder." 


TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING    WITNESSES.  14:5 

CHAKLES    8UMNER. 

Speaking  of  the  Crime  against  Kansas,  in  the  United  States  Sen 
ate,  on  the  19th  and  20th  of  May,  1856,  Mr.  Sumner,  the  scholarly  and 
eloquent  statesman — a  gentleman  and  patriot,  of  whom  it  is  not  toe 
much  to  say,  there  is  not  an  ungenerous  hair  upon  his  head,  nor  an  iota 
t>f  discount  in  his  composition — a  prudent,  fearless  advocate  of  free 
jabor,  whom,  ever  since  Brooks'  dastardly  assault  upon  him,  on  the 
$2d  of  May,  1856,  we,  as  a  Carolinian,  have  been  eager  (but  have  not 
yet  had  the  opportunity)  to  grasp  by  the  hand,  and  give  from  the  South 
assurances  of  at  least  one  hearty,  unqualified  condemnation  of  the  out 
rage — said : 

"The  wickedness  which  I  now  begin  to  expose  is  immeasurably  aggravated  by 
the  motive  which  prompted  it.  Not  in  any  common  lust  for  power  did  this  un 
common  tragedy  have  its  origin.  It  is  the  rape  of  a  virgin  Territory,  compelling 
it  to  the  hateful  embrace  of  slavery  ;  and  it  may  be  clearly  traced  to  a  depraved 
longing  for  a  new  slave  State,  the  hideous  offspring  of  such  a  crime,  in  the  hope  of 
adding  to  the  power  of  slavery  in  the  national  government.  Yes,  sir,  when  the 
whole  world,  alike  Christian  and  Turk,  is  rising  up  to  condemn  this  wrong,  and  to 
make  it  a  hissing  to  the  nations,  here  in  our  republic,  force — aye,  sir,  force — haa 
been  openly  employed  in  compelling  Kansas  to  this  pollution,  and  all  for  the  sake 
of  political  power.  There  is  the  simple  fact,  which  you  will  vainly  attempt  to  deny, 
but  Avhich  in  itself  presents  an  essential  wickedness  that  makes  other  public  crimes 
seem  like  public  virtues In  just  regard  for  free  labor  in  that  Terri 
tory,  which  it  is  sought  to  blast  by  unwelcome  association  with  slave  labor  ;  in 
Christian  sympathy  with  the  slave,  whom  it  is  proposed  to  task  and  to  sell  there  ;  in 
stern  condemnation  of  the  crime  which  has  been  consummated  on  that  beautiful 
soil  ;  in  rescue  of  fellow-citizens,  now  subjugated  to  a  tyrannical  usurpation  ;  in 
dutiful  respect  for  the  early  Fathers,  whose  aspirations  are  now  ignobly  thwarted  ; 
in  the  name  of  the  Constitution,  which  has  been  outraged — of  the  laws,  trampled 
down — or  Justice  banished — of  Humanity  degraded — of  Peace  destroyed — of  Free 
dom  crushed  to  earth  ;  and,  in  the  name  of  the  Heavenly  Father,  whose  service  ia 
perfect  freedom,  I  make  this  last  appeal." 


HE3TBY    WILSON. 

Replying  to  Mr.  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina,  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  March  20th,  1858,  Gen.  Wilson  of  Massachusetts,  said  : 

"  Fealty  to  the  Administration,  to  the  Democratic  party,  is  now  fealty  to  human 
slavery,  to  violence,  to  trickery,  and  to  fraud.  By  perversions  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws,  by  the  red  hand  of  violence,  by  unveiled  trickeries  and  transparent 
frauds,  by  the  indecent  proscription  of  men  of  inflexible  integrity,  by  the  shame 
less  prostitution  of  the  honors  of  the  government,  and  by  the  '  rank  corruption, 
mining  all  within,' which  'infects  unseen,'  the  administration  is  converting  the 
American  Democracy  into  a  mere  organization  for  the  perpetuity,  expansion,  and 
domination  of  human  slavery  on  the  North  American  continent.  There  is  not  to 
day,  in  all  Christendom,  a  political  organization  so  hostile  to  the  rights  of  human 
nature,  to  the  development  of  republican  ideas,  to  the  general  progress  of  tha 
human  race,  as  the  Democratic  party  of  the  United  States.  There  is  not  a  political 
organization  even  in  Spain,  Russia,  or  Austria,  that  dares,  in  the  face  of  the  civil 
ized  world,  blazon  its  banners  with  doctrines  so  hostile  to  the  rights  of  mankind, 
30  abhorrent  to  humanity,  as  are  avowed  in  these  halls,  and  upheld  by  the  Ameri 
can  Democracy,  under  the  lead  of  this  administration.  The  great  powers  of 
Europe,  England,  France  and  Russia,  have  fixed  their  hungry  eyes  upon  the  cov 
eted  prizes  ef  the  Eastern  World ;  and  we  are  invoked  to  forget  the  lessons  of 
Washington,  to  close  our  ears  to  the  appeals  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  whose  righte 
have  been  outraged,  and  turn  our  lustful  eyes  to  the  glittering  prizes  of  dominion 

7 


14:6  TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES. 

in  Mexico,  Central  America,  Cvfoa,  and  the  valleys  of  tlie  distant  Amazon.  No 
party  in  those  three  European  monarchies  dares  avow,  in  the  face  of  Christendom, 
i;hc  sentiment  we  have  heard  proclaimed  in  these  halls,  that  territorial  expansion, 
and  territorial  dominion  must  be  made,  not  for  the  advancement  of  the  sacred  and 
sublime  principle  of  equal  and  impartial  liberty  to  all  men,  but  for  the  subjugation 
and  personal  servitude  of  other  and  inferior  races I  tell  the  vaunt 
ing  senator  from  South  Carolina  that  thousands  of  merchants,  manufacturers  and 
mechanics  of  the  North  are  this  day,  and  have  been  for  months,  pressed  with  tho 
burden  of  bearing  the  unpaid  debts  owed  them  by  the  slave  States.  I  remember 
that  during  the  terrible  pressure  of  last  year,  while  our  business  men  were  stagger- 
Lag  under  the  pressure,  thirteen  out  of  fourteen  wholesale  merchants  in  one  depart- 
aaent  of  business  in  one  Southern  city,  imposed  upon  their  Eastern  creditors  the 
burden  of  renewing  their  matured  notes.  The  merchants  and  manufacturers  of 
.he  North  have  lost  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  during  the  last  thirty  years  in 
t,he  slave  States.  I  have  personally  lost,  in  the  senator's  own  State,  in  Louisiana, 
Virginia,  and  Kentucky,  thousands  of  dollars  more  than  I  am  now  able  to  com 
mand." 

JOHN.    P.    HALE. 

In  his  speech  on  Kansas  and  the  Supreme  Court,  delivered  in  tho 
Jnited 'States  Senate,  January  21st,  1858,  Mr.  Hale  said: 

"  Peace  came  in  1783  ;  and  in  1784  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  immortal  author  of  the 
.mmortal  Declaration  of  Independence,  began  his*  labors  in  the  Continental  Con 
gress,  moving  that  all  the  territory  we  tken  owned,  and  all  the  territory  that  we 
alight  thereafter  acquire,  should  be  forever  free  from  what  he  considered  the  con 
taminating  and  blighting  influences  of  human  slavery.  Those  who  are  laboring 
*vith  me  in  this  great  contest  may  take  courage  from  the  perseverance  with  which 
Jefferson  adhered  to  his  policj7.  In  1783-'84-'85r  and  '86,  the  measure  failed,  but 
inally,  in  1787,  it  partially  succeeded,  and  the  ordinance  was  passed  prohibiting 
slavery  from  all  the  territory  which  we  then  owned.  Yet,  sir,  in  view  of  all  this 
history,  written  as  with  a  sunbeam  upon  the  very  walls  of  the  room  in  which  this 
tribunal  now  assemble,  they  stand  up  in  1857,  to  declare  to  the  world  that  the 
slave  trade  and  slavery  were  so  universally  recognized  and  acknowledged,  that 
aobody  questioned  the  rightful  ness  of  the  traffic,  and  nobody  supposed  it  capable 
of  being  questioned.  Not  content  with  overturning  the  whole  line  of  judicial 
authority  to  be  found  in  every  nation  of  Europe,  and  in  every  State  of  this  Union, 
and  of  their  own  solemn  recorded  decision,  they  go  on  to  make  the  avowal  ;  arid 
then  go  further,  and  undertake  to  tear  from  that  chaplet  which  adorns  the  brows 
of  the  men  of  the  Revolution  the  proudest  and  fairest  of  their  ornaments;  and  that 
was  the  sincerity  of  the  professions  which  they  made  in  regard  to  the  rights  of 
human  nature.  It  is  true,  the  court  in  their  charity  undertake  to  throw  the  mantle 
of  ignorance  over  these  men,  and  say  they  did  not  understand  what  they  meant.  Sir, 
they  did  understand  it,  and  the  country  understood  it.  There  was  a  jealousy  on  tho 
subject  of  liberty  and  slavery  at  that  time,  of  which  we  are  little  prepared  to  judge 
at  the  present  day.  It  is  found  beaming  out  on  the  pages  of  the  writings  ol  'all 
these  men. 

"  If  the  opinions  of  the  Supreme  Court  are  true,  they  put  these  men  in  the  worst 
position  of  any  men  who  are  to  be  found  on  the  pages  of  our  history.  If  tho 
opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  be  true,  it  makes  the  immortal  authors  of  the  De 
claration  of  Independence  liars  before  God  and  hypocrites  before  the  world ;  for 
they  lay  down  their  sentiments  broad,  full,  and  explicit,  and  then  they  say  that 
they  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  universe  for  the  rectitude  of  their  inten 
tions  ;  but  if  you  believe  the  Supreme  Court,  they  were  merely  quibbling  on  words. 
They  went  into  the  courts  of  the  Most  High  and  pledged  lidelity  to  their  principles 
as  the  price  they  would  pay  for  success  ;  and  now  it  is  attempted  to  cheat  them  out 
of  the  poor  boon  of  integrity  ;  and  it  is  said  that  they  did  not  mean  so  ;  and  that 
when  they  said  all  men,  they  meant  all  white  men  ;  and  when  they  said  that  the  contest 
they  waged  was  for  the  right  of  mankind,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
would  have  you  believe  they  meant  it  was  to  establish  slavery.  Against  that  I  pro 
test,  here,  now,  and  everywhere  ;  and  I  tell  the  Supreme  Court  that  these  things 
are  so  impregnably  fixed  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  on  the  page  of  history,  in  the 
recollections  and  traditions  of  men,  that  it  will  require  mightier  efforts  than  they 
have  made  or  can  make  to  overturn  or  to  shake  these  settled  convictions  of  th-j 
popular  understanding  and  of  the  popular  heart.'1 


TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES.  14.7 

NATHANIEL    P.    BANKS. 

In  the  course  of  his  great  speech  in  Wall  street,  New  York,  on  the 
25th  of  Sept.,  1856,  Mr.  Banks  said : 

"For  seventy-five  years  past  the  government  of  this  country  has  been  in  the 
hands  of  southern  statesmen,  who  have  directed  its  policy.  The  North  has  been 
busy  in  the  mechanical  arts,  in  agriculture,  and  in  mining,  and  has  given  less  atten 
tion  to  the  affairs  of  the  government  than  it  otherwise  might  have  done — certainly 
less  than  it  ought  to  have  done.  On  the  contrary,  the  South  having  no  literature 
of  its  own,  having  no  science  of  its  own,  having  no  mechanical  and  manufacturing 
industry  of  its  own,  having  but  little  or  no  inventive  power  or  genius  of  its  own, 
having,  in  short,  none  of  the  elements  of  power  that  distinguish  our  civilization, 
has  turned  its  attention  chiefly,  so  far  as  its  leading  men  are  concerned,  to  the 
government  of  the  country.  No\v,  we  of  the  North  propose  to  divide  this  little 

matter  with  them I  should  do  wrong  to  our  cause — the  cause  of 

the  Northern  States — if  I  failed  to  say  that  there  are  other  influences  we  desire  to 
exert  by  the  elevation  to  the  Presidency  of  the  man  of  our  choice.  We  ask  that 
the  dead  weight  of  human  wrong  shall  be  lifted  up  from  the  continent  again,  that 
it  may  rise  as  it  was  rising  before  these  acts  of  .wrong  were  done." 

EDWIN   D.    MOEGAN. 

After  calling  to  order  the  Convention  which,  in  Philadelphia,  in  June, 
1856,  nominated  Mr.  Fremont  for  President,  and  Mr.  Dayton  for  Vice- 
President,  Mr.  Morgan,  as  Chairman  of  the  Eepublican  National  Com 
mittee— now  Governor  of  New  York — said : 

"You  are  assembled  for  patriotic  purposes.  High  expectations  are  cherished 
by  the  people.  You  are  here  to-day  to  give  direction  to  a  movement  which  is  to 
decide  whether  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  to  be  hereafter  and  forever 
chained  to  the  present  national  policy  of  the  extension  of  Human  Slavery.  Not 
whether  the  South  is  to  rule,  or  the  North  ;  but  whether  the  broad,  national  policy 
which  our  fathers  established,  cherished  and  maintained,  is  to  be  permitted  to 
descend  to  their  sous,  to  be  the  guiding  star  of  all  our  people.  Such  is  the  magni 
tude  of  the  question  submitted.  In  its  consideration  let  us  avoid  all  extremes- 
plant  ourselves  firmly  on  the  platform  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  taking 
no  position  which  does  not  commend  itself  to  the  judgment  of  our  consciences, 
our  country,  and  of  mankind.  Of  the  wisdom  of  such  a  policy  there  need  be  no 
floubt :  against  it,  there  can  be  no  successful  resistance  " 

EDWAED   WADE. 

In  his  speech  on  the  Slavery  question,  in  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives,  August  2,  1856,  Mr.  "Wade  said : 

"  Inherent  and  fundamental  right  of  freedom  of  speech  and  the  press,  does  not 
and  cannot  exist  in  slaveholding  communities.  This  is  a  necessity  of  despotic 
governments,  it  is  more  than  a  necessity  of  despotism,  it  is  in  itself,  the  essence  of 
despotism.  There  is  not  a  more  morbidly  suspicious,  cruel,  revengeful,  or  lawless 
despotism  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  than  the  nightmare  of  slavery,  which  has 
settled  down  upon  the  people  of  the  slaveholding  States,  with  the  exception  of 
perhaps  two  or  three  of  these  States.  There  is  more  freedom  of  speech  and  of 
the  press  to-day,  and  more  personal  sa_fcty  in  the  exercise  of  such  freedom,  at 
Vienna,  St.  Petersburg,  Paris,  or  Rome,  in  an  attack  and  exposure  of  the  despot 
ism  which  reigns  supreme  over  those  cities,  than  there  is  at  Richmond,  Charleston, 
Milledgeville,  or  Mobile,  to  attack  and  expose  the  slaveholding  despotisms  which 
rule  over  these  cities  with  a  rod  of  iron.  There  are  probably  more  citizens,  boru 
and  nurtured  in  the  slave  States,  now  in  exile  from  their  native  States  for  the  exer 
cise  of  freedom  of  speech  and  the  press,  against  the  despotism  of  slaveholding, 
than  there  are  from  Austria,  Russia,  France,  or  the  Two  Sicilies,  for  the  eyercis* 
of  the  same  rights  against  the  despotisms  which  crush  those  nations." 


14:8  TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES. 

FRANCIS   P.    BLAIK,    SEX. 

In  the  course  of  an  address  to  the  Republicans  of  Maryland — Ida 
own  State— in  185G,  Mr.  Blair  said: 

"  In  every  aspect  in  which  slavery  among  us  can  be  considered,  it  is  pregnant 
with  difficulty.  Its  continuance  in  the  States  in  which  it  has  taken  root  has  resulted 
in  the  monopoly  of  the  soil,  to  a  great  extent,  in  the  hands  of  the  slaveholders, 
and  the  entire  control  of  all  departments  of  the  State  Government;  and  yet  a 
majority  of  people  in  the  slave  States  are  not  slaveowners.  This  produces  an 
anomaly  in  the  principle  of  our  free  institutions,  which  threatens  in  time  to  bring 
into  subjugation  to  slaveowners  the  great  body  of  the  free  Yfhite  population." 

FEAXK    P.    BLAIR,    JE. 

In  his  speech  at  Concord,  IsTew  Hampshire,  February  2,  1859,  Mr. 
Blair,  of  Missouri,  of  whom  the  non-slaveholders  of  the  South  have  high 
hopes  in  the  future,  said  : 

"There  is  no  other  question  before  the  country  than  that  of  slavery.  It  is  the 
all-absorbing  topic  in  every  political  circle.  Upon  this  issue  I  have  long  since  taken 
my  ground  against  its  extension  and  perpetuation.  I  believe  that  slavery  should 
be  restricted  to  its  present  limits,  and  that  Congress  should  do  all  which  lies  in  its 
power  to  prevent  the  perpetuation  of  this  evil.  I  know  that  Congress  has  no  power 
to  interfere  with  it  where  it  at  present  exists  within  the  States ;  and  yet  I  doubt  not 
that  when  the  Republican  party  takes  possession  of  the  general  government,  and 
the  corrupting  patronage  of  the  administration  is  diverted  from  its  present  channels, 
we  shall  be  able  to  sl^y  the  little  oligarchy  of  slave-holders  some  things  of  which 
they  little  dream  even  within  the  States.  .  .  .  Although  the  institution  of  slavery  is 
to  be  condemned,  because  it  deprives  the  slave  of  everything  except  his  bread  and  but 
ter,  and  clothing,  and  shelter  in  winter,  it  merits  more"  decided  condemnation  on  ano 
ther  ground.  It  deprives  the  poor  whites  of  the  South  of  every  aspiration  which  apper 
tains  to  anything  nobler  than  their  bodies.  It  deprives  them  of  the  exercise  of  their 
intellects,  of  schools,  education  and  culture,  no  less  than  of  the  bread  of  themselves 
and  their  children.  I  am  more  opposed  to  the  institution  on  this  ground  than  on 
any  other,  because  it  is  our  own  race,  the  white  race,  which  is  here  trampled  upon 
— a  race  of  working  men  and  mechanics  like  yourselves.  Slavery  is  the  most  odious 
institution  ever  known.  It  is  essentially  and  vitally  aristocratic.  How  dare  these 
men  stand  up  here  and  call  themselves  Democrats,  while  they  have  a  race  of  whites 
pressed  down  under  a  twofold  stratum  of  slaves  and  slave  owners.  I  appeal  to  the 
people  of  New  Hampshire  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  this  oppressed  race.  Toward 
them  the  friends  of  slavery  intrench  themselves  in  exclusive  rights  of  a  twofold 
nature.  The  negro  slave  is  instructed  in  all  the  mechanical  arts  for  the  benefit  of 
his  master,  and  the  white  non-slaveholder  is  thus  excluded  from  all  opportunities 
for  elevating  his  family  or  providing  for  their  wants." 

GERRITT    SMITH. 

In  his  speech  on  the  Nebraska  bill,  delivered  in  the  House  of  Re 
presentatives,  April  G,  1854,  Mr.  Smith  said  : 

"The  slavery  question  is  up  again — up  again  even  in  Congress  !  It  will  not  be 
kept  down.  At  no  bidding,  however  authoritative,  will  it  keep  down  The  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  commands  it  to  keep  down.  Indeed  he  has,  hitherto, 
seemed  to  make  the  keeping  down  of  this  question  the  great  end  of  his  great  office. 
Members  of  Congress  have  so  far  humbled  themselves,  as  to  pledge  themselves  on 
this  floor  to  keep  it  down.  National  political  conventions  promise  to  discounte 
nance,  and  even  to  resist  the  agitation  of  slavery,  both  in  and  out  of  Congress. 
Commerce  and  politics  are  as  afraid  of  this  agitation,  as  Macbeth  was  of  the  ghost 
of  Banquo  ;  and  many  titled  divines,  taking  their  cue  from  commerce  and  politics, 
and  being  no  less  servile  than  merchants  and  demagogues,  do  what  they  can  to 
keep  the  slavery  question  out  of  sight.  But  all  is  of  no  avail.  The  saucy  slavery 
question  will  not  mind  them.  To  repress  it  in  one  quarter,  is  only  to  have  it  burst 
forth  more  prominently  in  another  quarter.  If  you  hold  it  back  here,  it  will  break 
loose  there,  and  rush  forward  with  an  accumulated  force,  that  shall  amply  revenge 


TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING   WITNESSES.  149 

for  all  its  detention.  And  this  is  not  strange,  when  we  consider  how  great  is  the 
power  of  truth.  It  were  madness  for  man  to  bid  the  grass  not  to  grow,  the  waters 
not  to  run,  the  winds  not  to  blow.  It  were  madness  for  him  to  assume  the  mastery 
of  the  elements  of  the  physical  world.  But  more  emphatically  were  it  madness  for 
him  to  attempt  to  hold  in  his  puny  fist  the  forces  of  the  moral  world.  Canute's 
folly,  in  setting  bounds  to  the  sea,  was  wisdom  itself,  compared  with  the  so  much 
greater  folly  of  attempting  to  subjugate  the  moral  forces.  Now,  the  power  which 
is,  ever  and  anon,  throwing  up  the  slavery  question  into  our  unwilling  and  affrighted 
faces,  is  Truth.  The  passion-blinded  and  the  infatuated  may  not  discern  this  mighty 
agent.  Nevertheless,  Truth  lives  and  reigns  forever  ;  and  she  will  be,  continually, 
tossing  up  unsettled  questions.  We  must  bear  in  rnind,  too,  that  every  question, 
which  has  not  been  disposed  of  in  conformity  with  her  requirements,  and  which 
has  not  been  laid  to  repose  on  her  own  blessed  bosom,  is  an  unsettled  question. 
Hence,  slavery  is  an  unsettled  question,  and  must  continue  such,  until  it  shall  have 
fled  forever  from  the  presence  of  liberty." 

JOSHUA   E.    GIDDINGS. 

In  his  speech  on  American  Piracy,  in  Committee  of  the  whole 
House,  on  the  state  of  the  Union,  June  7,  1858,  Mr.  Giddings  said  : 

"Every  man  who  sells  a  slave  thereby  encourages  the  slave  trade  ;  and  no  reflect 
ing  mind  can  regard  the  coastwise  slave  trade  less  criminal  than  that  which  is  car 
ried  on  upon  the  shores  of  Africa.  In  truth  it  was  born  of  tho  African  trade,  and 
in  its  effects  it  is  more  atrocious,  as  its  victims  are  more  intelligent.  It  is  thus  that 
the  African  slave  trade,  the  coastwise  slave  trade,  the  inter-State  slave  trade,  the 
holding  of  slaves,  the  breeding  of  slaves,  the  selling  and  buying  of  slaves,  are  all 
connected  and  interwoven  in  one  general  network  of  moral  turpitude,  constituting  an 
excrescence,  a  cancer  upon  the  body  politic  of  our  nation.  The  African  slave  trade 
constitutes  the  germ,  the  root,  from  which  our  American  slave  trade,  and  all  the 
various  relations  of  that  institution  in  this  country,  have  sprung.  If  the  tree  be 
piracy,  it  is  clear  that  its  fruit  can  be  nothing  else  than  piracy  ;  and  when  the 
nation  stamped  that  commerce  as  piratical,  it  proclaimed  the  guilt  of  every  man 
who  voluntarily  connects  himself  with  slavery. 

A1STSON  BUKLINGAME. 

In  his  defence  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
June  21,  1856,  Mr.  Burlingame  said  : 

"  Freedom  and  slavery  started  together  in  the  great  race  on  this  continent.  In 
the  very  year  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock,  slaves  landed  in  Vir 
ginia.  Freedom  has  gone  on  trampling  down  barbarism,  and  planting  States^ 
building  the  symbols  of  its  faith  by  every  lake,  and  every  river,  until  now  the  sons 
of  the  pilgrims  stand  by  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  Slavery  has  also  made  its  way 
toward  the  setting  sun.  It  has  reached  the  Rio  Grande  on  the  South  ;  and  the 
groans  of  its  victims,  and  the  clank  of  its  chains,  may  be  heard  as  it  slowly  ascends 
the  western  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi  River.  Freedom  has  left  the  land  bespangled 
with  free  schools,  and  filled  the  whole  heavens  with  the  shining  towers  of  religion 
and  civilization.  Slavery  has  left  desolation,  ignorance,  and  death,  in  its  path. 
When  we  look  at  these  things  ;  when  we  see  what  the  country  would  have  been  had 
freedom  been  given  to  the  territories  ;  when  we  think  what  it  would  have  been  but 
for  this  blight  in  the  bosom  of  the  country;  that  the  whole  South  —  that  fair  land 
God  has  blessed  so  much  —  would  have  been  covered  with  cities,  and  villages,  and 
railroads,  and  that  in  the  country,  in  the  place  of  twenty-five  millions  of  people, 
thirty-five  millions  would  have  hailed  the  rising  morn,  exulting  in  republican  liberty 
—when  we  think  of  these  things,  how  must  every  honest  man  —  how  must  every 
man  with  brains  in  his  head,  or  heart  in  his  bosom—  regret  that  the  policy  of  old 
Virginia,  in  her  better  days,  did  not  become  the  animating  policy  of  this  expanding 
Republic  !" 

GALUSHA  A.    GROW. 

In  liis  speech  against  the  Lecoinpton  Constitution,  delivered  J\  th6 
House  of  Representatives,  March  25,  1858,  Mr.  Grow  said  : 


"  Peace  among  a  brave  people  is  not  tho  fruit  of  injustice,  nor  does 
ivease  b>  the  -^rpetration  of   wrong.    For  a  third  of  a  century,  the  advocates  nf 


150  TESTIMONY    OF    LIVING   WITNESSES. 


uavcry ,  while  exei3isrng  unrestricted  speecn  m  us  aeienco,  nave  struggled  xo  pre 
rent  all  discussion  against  it— in  the  South,  by  penal  statutes,  mob  law,  and  brute 
x>rce  ;  in  the  North,  by  dispersing  assemblages  of  peaceable  citizens,  pelting  their 
ecturers,  burning  their  halls,  and  destroying  their  presses ;  in  this  forum  of  the 


slavery,  while  exersising  unrestricted  speech  in  its  defence,  have  struggled  to 

vent  al 

force 

lecturers,  .. .__ 

people,  by  finality  resolves  on  all  laws  for  the  benefit  of  slavery,  not,  however,  to 

affect  those  in  behalf  of  freedom,  and  by  attempts  to  stifle  the  great  constitutional 

right  of  the  people  at  all  times  to  petition  their  government.^  Yet,  despite  threats, 

rnob  law,  and  finality  resolves,  the  discussion  goes  on,  and  will  continue  to,  so  long 

as  right  and  wrong,  justice  and  injustice,  humanity  and  inhumanity,  shall  struggle 

for  supremacy  in  the  affairs  of  men." 

KALPH   WALDO    EMERSON. 

In  liis  speech  at  Concord,  Massachusetts,  Aug.  1, 1844,  celebrating  the 
anniversary  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  Mr.  Emerson, 
the  most  practical  and  profound  metaphysician  in  America,  said : 

"  The  crude  element  of  good  in  human  affairs  roust  work  and  ripen,  spite  of  whips, 
and  plantation  laws,  and  West  Indian  interests.  Conscience  rolled  on  its  pillow, 
and  could  not  sleep.  We  sympathize  very  tenderly  here  with  the  poor  aggrieved 
planter,  of  whom  so  many  unpleasant  things  are  said  ;  but  if  we  saw  the  whip  applied 
to  old  men,  to  tender  women ;  and,  undeniably,  though  I  shrink  to  say  so, — pregnant 
women  set  in  the  treadmill  for  refusing  to  work,  when,  not  they,  but  the  eternal  law 
of  animal  nature  refused  to  work  ; — if  we  saw  men's  backs  flayed  with  cowhides, 
and  '  hot  rum  poured  on,  superinduced  with  brine  or  pickle,  rubbed  in  with  a  corn- 
husk,  in  the  scorching  heat  of  the  sun ;' — if  we  saw  the  runaways  hunted  with 
blood-hounds  into  swamps  and  hills;  and,  incases  of  passion,  a  planter  thro  wing  his 
negro  into  a  copper  of  boiling  cane  juice, — if  we  saw  these  things  with  eyes,  we  too 
should  wince.  They  are  not  pleasant  sights.  The  blood  is  moral :  the  blood  is 
anti-slavery :  it  runs  cold  in  the  veins  :  the  stomach  rises  with  disgust,  and  curses 

slavery 

"  Unhappily,  most  unhappily,  gentlemen,  man  is  born  with  intellect,  as  well  as 
with  a  love  of  sugar,  and  with  a  sense  of  justice,  as  well  as  a  taste  for  strong  drink. 
These  ripened,  as  well  as  those.  You  could  not  educate  him,  you  could  not  get  any 
poetry,  any  wisdom,  any  beauty  in  woman,  any  strong  and  commanding  character 
in  man,  but  these  absurdities  would  still  come  flashing  out, — these  absurdities  of  a 
demand  for  justice,  a  generosity  for  the  weak  and  oppressed.  Unhappily,  too,  for 
the  planter,  the  laws  of  nature  are  in  harmony  with  each  other  :  that  which  the  head 
and  the  heart  demand,  is  found  to  be,  in  the  long  run,  for  what  the  grossest  cal 
culator  calls  his  advantage.  The  moral  sense  is  always  supported  by  the  permanent 
interest  of  the  parties.  Else,  I  know  not  how,  in  our  world,  any  good  would  ever 
get  done.  It  was  shown  to  the  planters  that  they,  as  well  as  the  negroes,  were 
slaves  ;  that  though  they  paid  no  wages,  they  got  very  poor  work ;  that  their  estates 
were  ruining  them  under  the  finest  climate ;  and  that  they  needed  the  severest 
monopoly  laws  at  home  to  keep  them  from  bankruptcy.  The  oppression  of  the 
slave  recoiled  on  them.  They  were  full  of  vices ;  their  children  were  lumps  of 
pride,  sloth,  sensuality  and  rottenness.  The  position  of  woman  was  nearly  as  bad 
as  it  could  be,  and,  like  other  robbers,  they  could  not  sleep  in  security.  Many 
planters  have  said,  since  the  emancipation,  that,  before  that  day,  they  were  the 
greatest  slaves  on  the  estate.  Slavery  is  no  scholar,  no  improver  ;  it  does  not  love 
the  whittle  of  the  railroad  ;  it  does  not  love  the  newspaper,  the  mail  bag,  a  col 
lege,  a  book,  or  a  preacher  who  has  the  absurd  whim  of  saying  what  lie  thinks;  it  does 
not  increase  the  white  population  ;  it  does  not  improve  the  soil ;  everything  goes 
to  decay." 

THOMAS    COEWI5T. 

In  his  speech  against  the  Compromise  Bill,  delivered  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  July  24,  1848,  Mr.  Corwin,  once  a  Kentucky  boy,  now  an 
Ohio  man,  said  : 

UI  am  the  more  confirmed  in  the  course  which  I  am  determined  to  pursue,  by 
some  historical  facts  elicited  in  this  very  discussion.  I  remember  what  was  said 
by  the  senator  from  Virginia  the  other  day.  It  is  a  truth,  that  when  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  was  made,  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  refused  to  come  into  the 
Union  unless  the  slave  trade  should  be  continued  for  twenty  years  ;  and  the  North 
agreed  that  they  would  vote  to  continue  the  slave  trade  for  twenty  years ;  yes, 


TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING    WITNESSES.  151 

voted  teat  this  new  Republic  should  engage  in  piracy  and  murder  at  the  will  of  YWC 
States  !  So  the  history  reads;  and  the  condition  of  the  agreement  was,  that  those 
two  States  should  agree  to  some  arrangement  about  navigation  laws  '  I  do  not 
blame  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  for  this  transaction  any  more  than  I  do  those 
Northern  States  who  shared  in  id  Butsuppose  the  question  were  now  presented  here 
by  any  one,  whether  we  should  adopt  the  foreign  slave  trade  and  continue  it  for 
twenty  years,  woul-d  not  the  whole  land  turn  pale  with  horror,  that,  in  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  centur}-,  a  citizen  of  a  free  community,  a  senator  of  the  United 
States,  should  dare  to  propose  the  adoption  of  a  system  that  has  been  denominated 
piracy  and  murder,  and  is  by  law  punished  by  death  all  over  Christendom  ?  What 
did  they  do  then  ?  They  had  the  power  to  prohibit  it  ;  but,  at  the  command  of 
these  two  States,  they  allowed  that  to  be  introduced  into  the  Constitution,  to  which 
much  of  slavery  now  existing  in  our  kind  is  clearly  to  be  traced.  For  who  can 
doubt  that,  but  for  that  woeful  bargain,  slavery  would  by  this  time  have  disappeared 
from  all  the  States  then  in  the  Union,  with  one  or  two'  exceptions  ?  The  number 
of  slaves  in  the  United  States  at  this  period  was  about  six  hundred  thousand  ;  it  is 
now  three  millions.  And  just  as  you  extend  the  area  of  slavery,  so  you  multiply 
the  difficulties  which  lie  in  the  way  of  its  extermination.  It  had  been  infinitely 
better  that  day  that  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  had  remained  out  of  the  Union  for 
a  while,  rather  than  that  the  Constitution  should  have  been  made  to  sanction  the 
slave  trad-e  for  twenty  years.  The  dissolution  of  the  old  Confederation  would  have 
been  nothing  in  comparison  with  that  recognition  of  piracy  and  murder.  I  can 
conceive  of  nothing  in  the  dark  record  of  man's  enormities,  from  the  death  of  Abel 
down  to  this  hour,  so  horrible  as  that  of  stealing  people  from  their  own  home,  and 
making  them  and  their  posterity  slaves  forever.  It  is  a  crime  which  we  know  has 
been  visited  with  such  signal  punishment  in  the  history  of  nations  as  to  warrant  the 
belief  that  heaven  itself  Sad  interfered  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of  earth." 


B.    OEATZ    BROW3T. 

In  the  Missouri  legislature,  in  January,  1857,  Mr.  Brown,  of  St. 
Louis,  proved  himself  a  hero,  a  patriot  and  a  statesman,  in  the  following 
words  : 

"I  am  a  Free-Soiter,  and  I  don't  deny  it.  No  word  or  vote  of  mine  shall  ever 
inure  to  the  benefit  of  such  a  monstrous  doctrine  as  the  extension  of  slavery  over 
the  patrimony  of  the  free  white  laborers  of  the  country.  I  arei  for  the  greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number,  and  against  the  system  which  monopolizes  the  free 
and  fertile  territory  of  our  country  for  a  few  slaveholders,  to  the  exclusion  of  thou 
sands  upon  thousands  of  the  sinewy  sons  of  toil.  The  time  will  come,  and  perhaps 
very  soon,  when  the  people  will  rule  for  their  own  benefit,  and  not  for  that  of  a 
class  which,  numerically  speaking,  is  insignificant.  I  stand  here  in  the  midst  of  the 
assembled  legislature  of  Missouri  to  avow  myself  a  Free-Soiler.  Let  those  who 
are  scared  at  names  shrink  from  the  position  if  they  will.  I  shall  take  my  stand  ia 
favor  of  the  white  man.  Here,  in  Missouri,  I  skall  support  the  rights,  the  dignity 
and  the  welfare  of  the  eight  hundred  thousand  non-slaveholders  in  preference  to 
upholding  and  perpetuating  the  dominancy  of  the  thirty  thousand  slavehoMera 
who  inhabit  our  State." 

HEXEY   €.    CAREY. 

In  his  statesman-like  Letters  to  the  President,  which  Mr.  Buchanan, 
to  whom  they  are  most  respectfully  addressed,  has  not  answered,  for 
the  reason,  we  suppose,  that  it  is  absolutely  impossible  for  him  to 
answer  them  with  any  credit  to  himself  or  to  his  party,  Mr.  Carey  says, 
assuring  us  that  ten  years  ago  conservative,  patriotic  men  everywhere, 
would  have  regarded  as  a  false  prophet  the  man  who  had  predicted  : 

u  That,  at  the  close  of  a  single  decade,  the  regular  expenditures  of  the  federal 
government,  in  a  time  of  peace,  would  reach  seventy  millions  of  dollars  —  being  five 
times  more  thiin  they  had  been  but  thirty  years  before. 

"  That  the  Executive  would  dictate  to  members  of  Congress  what  should  be  1heir 
course,  and  publicly  advertise  the  offices  that  were  to  be  given,  to  those  whose  votef 
phould  be  in  accordance  with  his  desires. 

"  That  the  growing  mental  slavery  thus  indicated,  would  be  attended  by  o:r 


152  TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES. 

responding*growth  in  the  belief,  that '  one  of  the  chief  bulwarks  of  our  institutions 
was  to  be  found  in  the  physical  enslavement  of  the  laborer. 

"  That  the  extension  of  the  area  of  human  slavery  would  have  become  the  pri 
mary  object  of  the  government,  and  that,  with  that  view,  the  great  Ordinance  of 
1787,  as  carried  out  in  the  Missouri  Compromise,  would  be  repealed. 

"  That  the  reopening  of  the  slave  trade  would  be  publicly  advocated,  and  that 
the  first  step  toward  its  accomplishment  would  be  taken  by  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States — in  rescinding  all  the  prohibitions  of  the  Central  American  govern 
ments. 

u  That  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  a  Central  American  State  would  be  con 
sidered  sufficient  reason  for  the  rejection  of  a  treaty. 

"  That  the  substitution,  throughout  all  the  minor  employments  of  society,  of  slave 
lubor  for  that  of  the  freeman,  would  be  publicly  recommended  by  the  Executive  of 
a  leading  State. 

"  That,  while  always  seeking  territory  in  the  South,  the  rights  and  interests  of  the 
people  would  be  bartered  away,  for  the  sole  and  exclusive  purpose  of  preventing 
annexation  in  the  North. 

"  That  Lynch-law  would  have  found  its  way  into  the  Senate  chamber :  that  ii 
•would  have  superseded  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  throughout  the  Southern 
States:  that  it  would  have  superseded  the  civil  authority,  in  one  of  the  States  of 
the  Union :  that  the  right  of  the  States  to  prohibit  slavery  within  their  limits, 
•would  be  so  seriously  questioned  as  to  warrant  the  belief,  that  the  day  was  near 
at  hand  when  it  would  be  totally  denied  :  that  all  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme 
Court  for  sixty  years,  favorable  to  freedom,  would  by  this  time  have  been 
reversed  :  that  the  doctrine  of  constructive  treason  would  be  adopted  in  federal 
courts :  and  that  the  rights  of  the  citizen  would  be  thus  in  equal  peril,  from  the 
extension  of  legal  authority  on  one  hand,  and  the  substitution  of  the  law  of  force 
on  the  other. 

"  That  polygamy  and  slavery  would  go  hand  in  hand  with,  each  other,  and  that 
the  doctrine  of  a  plurality  of  wives  would  be  publicly  proclaimed  by  men  holding 
highly  important  offices  under  the  Federal  government?' 

WENDELL    PHILLIPS. 

In  his  speech  at  the  City  Hall,  in  "Worcester,  Mass.,  Jan.  15,  1857, 
Mr.  Phillips,  the  Demosthenes  of  New  England,  whom  certain  Pro- 
Slavery  fanatics  of  the  South,  in  an  insane  effort  to  abuse,  have  highly  com 
plimented  by  describing  him  as  "an  infernal  machine  set  to  music,"  said :  • 

"  Slavery  is  so  momentous  an  evil,  that  in  its  presence  all  others  pale  away.  No 
thoughtful  man  can  deem  any  sacrifice  too  great  to  secure  its  abolition.  The  safety 
of  the  people  is  the  highest  law.  In  this  battle  we  demand  a  clear  field  and  the 
use  of  every  honorable  weapon.  Even  the  monuments  of  our  fathers  are  no  longer 
sacred,  if  the  enemy  are  concealed  behind  them. 

"  This  is  my  first  claim  upon  every  man  who  has  an  Anti-Slavery  purpose.  One 
of 'the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest  question  of  the  age,  is  that  of  Free  Labor.  1 
do  not  know — no  man  can  prophecy — what  sacrifices  it  will  demand,  no  human 
sagacity  divine  what  shape  it  will  acquire  in  the  kaleidoscope  of  the  future.  Nobody 
can  foresee  the  combinations  that  will  be  necessary  in  order  to  secure  liberty  and 
turn  law  into  justice.  The  pledge  we  make  to  each  other,  as  Abolitionists,  is,  that 
to  this  slave  question,  embodying  as  it  does  the  highest  justice  and  the  most  per 
fect  liberty,  synonymous  as  it  is  with  right,  manhood,  justice,  with  pure  religion, 
A  free  press,  an  impartial  judiciary  and  a  true  civilization,  we  will  sacrifice  every 
thing.  If  any  man  dissents,  he  is  uot,  in  any  just  sense,  an  Abolitionist.  *  If  he  has 
not  studied  the  question  enough  to  know  that  it  binds  up  in  itself  all  considerations 
of  govf  rnrnent,  then  he  is  not  worthy  of  being  called  an  Abolitionist." 

Again,  on  the  17th  of  February,  1859,  addressing  a  Committee  of  thy 
Massachusetts  legislature,  in  support  of  numerous  petitions,  asking  for 
a  law  to  prevent  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves,  he  said : 

"  It  is  no  answer  to  my  request  to  say,  that  you  will  granta  jury  trial — that  you  will 
hedge  the  citizen  with  such  safeguards  that  none  but  a  real  fugitive  can  ever  be  de 
livered  up.  That  is  not  the  Massachusetts  we  want,  and  nottlie  Massachusetts  we  have 
a  right  to  claim.  If  the  South  has  violated  the  Constitution  repeatedly,  palpaMy, 


TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES.  153 

avowedly,  defiantly,  atrociously,  for  her  own  purposes — to  get  power  in  the  govern 
ment,  to  perpetuate  her  system,  to  control  the  nation — we  claim  of  you  that  you 
should  exercise  the  privilege  which  that  violation  has  given  you.  We  claim  of  you 
that  you  should  give  us  a  Massachusetts  worthy  of  its  ancient  name.  Give  us  a 
State  that  is  not  disgraced  by  the  trial,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  in  the  midst  of  so 
cked  Christian  churches,  of  the  issue,  '  Is  this  man  a  chattel?'  We  will  not  rest 
until  it  is  decided  as  the  law  of  Massachusetts,  that  a  human  being,  immortal, 
created  by  the  hand  of  God,  shall  not  be  put  upon  trial  in  the  Commonwealth,  and 
required  to  prove  that  he  is  not  property.  It  shall  not  be  competent  for  the  courts 
of  Massachusetts  to  insult  the  civilization  of  the  nineteenth  century  by  asking  that 
question,  or  making  it  the  subject  of  evidence  and  proof." 

THEODOKE    PARKER. 

In  liis  discourse  at  the  Music  Hall,  in  Boston,  on  Monday,  February 
12,  1854,  Mr.  Parker,  who,  bountifully  supplied  with  brain,  was  born 
thinking,  and  whose  abhorrence  of  slavery  of  the  body  is  more  than 
equalled  by  his  abhorrence  of  slavery  of  the  mind,  said : 

u  Slavery  hinders  the  education  and  the  industry  of  the  people;  it  is  fatal  to 
their  piety.  Think  of  a  religious  kidnapper  !  a  Christian  Slave-breeder !  a  Slave- 
trader  loving  his  neighbor  as  himself,  receiving  the  'sacraments'  in  some  Protes 
tant  Church  from  the  hand  of  a  Christian  apostle,  then  the  next  day  selling  babies 
by  the  dozen,  and  tearing  young  women  from  the  arms  of  their  husbands,  to  feed 
the  lust  of  lecherous  New  Orleans  !  Imagine  a  religious  man  selling  his  own  child 
ren  into  e-ternal  bondage  !  Think  of  a  Christian  defending  slavery  out  of  the 
Bible  and  declaring  there  is  no  higher  law,  but  Atheism  is  the  first  principle  of 

Republican  government As  soon  as  the  North  awakes  to  its 

ideas,  and  uses  its  vast  strength  of  money,  its  vast  strength  of  numbers,  and  its 
etill  more  gigantic  strength  of  educated  intellect,  we  shall  tread  this  monster  under 
neath  our  feet.  See  how  Spain  has  fallen — how  poor  and  miserable  is  Spanish 
America.  She  stands  there  a  perpetual  warning  to  us.  One  day  the  North  will 
rise  in  her  majesty,  and  put  Slavery  under  our  feet,  and  then  we  shall  extend  the 
area  of  freedom.  The  blessing  of  Almighty  God  will  come  down  upon  the  noblest 
people  the  world  ever  saw — who  have  triumphed  over  Theocracy,  Monarchy, 
Aristocracy,  Despotocracy,  and  have  got  a  Democracy — a  government  of  all,  for 
all,  and  by  all — a  church  without  a  bishop,  a  state  without  a  king,  a  community 
without  a  lord,  and  a  family  without  a  slave." 

WILLIAM    LLOYD    GAEEISON. 

In  a  recently  published  volume  of  his  Writings  and  Speeches,  Mr. 
Garrison,  under  whose  most  able  counsel  and  convincing  arguments 
organized  opposition  to  slavery  first  became  an  important,  and  is  des 
tined  soon  to  become  a  controlling,  power  in  the  government,  says : 

"  It  is  the  strength  and  glory  of  the  Anti-Slavery  cause,  that  its  principles  are  so 
simple  and  elementary,  and  yet  so  vital  to  freedom,  morality  and  religion,  as  to 
commend  themselves  to  the  understandings  and  consciences  of  men  of  every  sect 
and  party,  every  creed  and  persuasion,  every  caste  and  color.  They  are  self- 
evident  truths — fixed  stars  in  the  moral  firmament — blazing  suns  in  the  great  uni 
verse  of  mind,  dispensing  light  and  heat  over  the  whole  surface  of  humanity,  and 
around  which  all  social  and  moral  affinities  revolve  in  harmony.  They  are"  to  be 
denied,  only  as  tli3  existence  of  a  God,  or  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  is  denied. 
Unlike  human  theories,  they  can  never  lead  astray  ;  unlike  human  devices, 
they  can  never  be  made  subservient  to  ambition  or  selfishness I 


iu.tu.iifj    ,  A  i/nvjuj.  vtnj      UIAUJT     ui  c     uu.uj'     VlllillUlSillill  ^   j     11     tU     till     UlftlUi Y«      UUi 

destruction  is  not  only  possible,  but  almost  certain.  Why  should  we  slumber  at 
this  momentous  crisis?  If  our  hearts  were  dead  to  every  throb  of  humanity;  if  it 
were  lawful  to  oppress,  where  power  ia  ample  ;  still,  if  we  had  any  regard  for  our 
safety  and  happiness,  we  should  strive  to  crush  the  vampire  which  ia  feeding  upon 
our  life  blood.  All  the  selfishness  of  our  nature  cries  aloud  for  a  better  security 
Oar  own  vices  are  too  strong  for  us,  and  keep  us  in  perpetual  alarm;  how  it 

7* 


154:  TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES. 

addition  to  these,  shall  we  be  able  to  contend  successfully  with  millions  of  armed 
and  desperate  men,  as  we  must  eventually,  if  slavery  do  not  cease  ?" 

HEXEY   TVAED   BEECHEE. 

In  his  address  before  the  American  Tract  Society  of  Boston,  in  the 
Church  of  the  Puritans,  IsTew  York,  May  12,  1859,  Mr.  Beecher  said: 

"  For  more  than  thii'ty  years  the  diapason  of  this  country  has  not  been  the  swell 
of  the  ocean.  It  has  not  been  the  sighing  of  the  wind  through  our  Western 
forests ;  the  deep  thunder-toned  diapason  that  has  rolled  through  this  land,  has  been 
the  sighing  of  the  slave.  Throughout  all  this  time  the  Church  has  heard  the  voice, 
and  scarcely  knew  what  it  was.  But  God  has  been  rolling  it  upon  her  more  aud 
more.  In  my  day  a  conflict  has  taken  place.  I  remember  the  days  of  mobs.  I 
remember  when  Birncy's  press  was  broken  in  pieces  at  Cincinnati  and  dragged 
into  the  Ohio  Kiver.  I  remember  when  Theodore  Weld  was  driven  by  unvitalized 
eggs  from  place  to  place  in  the  West.  I  rcm-ember  the  day  when  storehouses  were 
Backed  and  houses  pillaged  in  New  York.  I  remember  the  day  when  a  venerable 
man  escaped  from  being  murdered  for  a  good  cause,  and  because  he  escaped  has 
never  been  engaged  in  it  since.  I  remember  when  it  was  as  much  as  a  man's  name 
was  worth  to  be  called  an  Abolitionist.  I  have  within  twenty  years  seen  those 
parties  which  were  the  most  tyrannic  ground  out  of  existence,  and  those  churches 
which  refused  to  discuss  this  question  have  been  overrun  by  it  and  taken  complete 
possession  of.  Synods,  which  have  acted  as  dykes,  have  been  overwhelmed  and 
submerged.  General  Assemblies  have  been  carried  away  captive  by  this  good 
cause,  and  the  public  sentiment  of  the  whole  continent  has  been  changed  in  this 
mighty  work." 

GEOKGE   B.    CHEEVEE. 

In  an  address  delivered  in  the  Church  of  the  Puritans,  on  Thursday, 
Hay  13,  1858,  Dr.  Cheever,  speaking  of  the  sin  of  slavery,  said  : 

"We  practise  the  iniquity  upon  children,  innocent  children,  the  natives  of  our 
own  land,  unbought,  unsold,  unpaid  for,  without  consultation  or  consent  of  father 
or  mother,  or  the  shadow  of  a  permission  from  the  Almighty  ;  and  they,  the  new 
born  babes  of  this  system,  are  the  compound  interest  year  by  year  added  to  the 
sin  and  its  capital,  which  thus  doubles  upon  us  in  the  next  generation,  and  must 
treble  in  another.  We  make  use  of  the  most  sacred  domestic  affections,  of  mater 
nal,  filial,  and  I  was  going  to  say,  connubial  love — but  the  system  forbids,  and  I 
have  to  say  contubcrnal — for  such  rapid  and  accumulating  production  of  the  iniquity, 
as  shall  be  in  some  measure  adequate  to  the  demand.  The  whole  family  relation, 
the  whole  domestic  state,  is  prostituted,  poisoned,  turned  into  a  misery-making 
machine  for  the  agent  of  all  evil.  What  God  meant  should  be  the  source  and  inspi 
ration  of  happiness,  becomes  the  fountain  of  sin  and  woe.  The  sacred  names  of 
husband,  wife,  father,  mother,  son,  babe,  become  the  exponents  of  various  forces 
and  values  in  the  slave-breeding  institute.  And  the  whole  perfection,  complete 
ness  and  concentration  of  this  creative  power  in  this  manufacturing  interest  de 
scends  like  a  trip-hammer  on  the  children,  beating  them  from  birth  into  market 
able  articles,  and  stamping  and  scaling  them  as  chattels,  foredoomed  and  fatalizcd  to 
run  till  they  wear  out,  as  living  spindles,  wheels,  activities  of  labor  and  product 
iveness,  in  the  same  horrible  system. 

"  And  each  generation  of  immortal  marketable  stuff  is  as  exactly  fashioned  in 
these  grooves,  molds,  channels,  wefted,  netted  and  drawn  through,  to  come  out  the 
invariable  product,  as  the  yards  of  carpeting  are  cut  from  the  loom  to  be  trodden  on. 
or  as  the  coins  drop  from  the  die  for  the  circulation  of  society.  This  is  the  pecu 
liarity  of  the  sin  of  slavery  in  the  foremost  Christian  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
In  this  branch  of  native  industry  and  manufacture  we  are  self-reliant.  Disavowing 
a  protective  policy  in  almost  everything  else,  we  are  proudly  patriotic  for  the 
security,  superiority  and  abundance  of  this  most  sacred  native  product  of  domestic 
manufacture,  and  for  neither  the  raw  material  nor  the  bleaching  of  it  will  depend 
on  any  other  country  in  the  world." 

JOSEPH    P.    THOMPSON. 

Trying  the  Fugitive  Slave  -Law  by  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  Dr, 
Thompson,  pastor  of  the  Broadway  Tahernacle,  says  : 


TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES.  155 

"Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  lawfulness  or  the  expediency  of  introducing 
the  general  subject  of  slavery  into  the  pulpit,  there  can  be  no  question  that  the 
treatment  due  to  fugitives  from  slavery  is  a  legitimate  topic  for  discussion  there. 
That  is  a  subject  of  which  the  Bible  treats,  and  in  making  it  a  subject  of  discourse  1 
am  not  preaching  politics  but  am  preaching  the  Gospel;  applying  the  principles  of 
the  Bible  to  an  important  public  interest.  The  subject  legitimately  belongs  to  the 
pulpit,  and  politicians  should  be  careful  how  they  tamper  with  it,  lest  they  betray 
an  ignorance  of  the  principles  of  Biblical  interpretation  and  of  the  spirit  of  Christi 
anity,  as  gross  as  that  ignorance  of  political  aftiiirs  which  they  are  prone  to  charge 
upon  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  The  treatment  of  fugitive  slaves  has  indeed  been 
made  a  political  question  ;  but  it  was  a  Biblical  question  and  a  question  of  morality 
long  before  it  was  dragged  into  the  arena  of  politics,  and  it  was  legislated  upon  by 
the  King  of  heaven  and  earth  nges  before  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  had  an 

existence The  laws  of  Moses  were  given  in  the  wilderness,  to  a 

people  just  escaped  from  bondage,  and  who  therefore  had  no  slaves;  they  were 
given  in  anticipation  of  the  introduction  of  slavery  among  that  people  when  they 
should  come  to  be  settled  as  conquerors  in  Canaan;  they  were  given  to  restrain  the 
lust  of  conquest,  and  oppression,  and  to  hedge  In  as  much  as  possible  the  natural 
tendency  of  the  emancipated  to  retaliate  upon  others  the  cruelties  of  their  own 
bondage — to  prevent  the  Israelites  from  becoming  to  each  other  and  to  the  Ca- 
naanites  what  the  Egyptians  had  been  to  the  Israelites  ;  they  were  given  in  order, 
by  a  qualified  and  an  onerous  permission,,  to  secure  the  overthrow  of  a  system 
which,  as  the  times  and  the  people  were,  could  not  have  been  shut  out  by  an  abso 
lute  prohibition.  And  as  the  crowning  act  of  legislation  for  the  ultimate  overthrow 
of  an  evil  tolerated  from  necessity,  it  was  decreed  that  no  fugitive  from  slavery 
should  ever  be  delivered  up  to  his  master.  The  slave  was  at  liberty  to  escape  from 
3iis  master  whenever  he  desired  to  better  his  condition,  and  in  whatever  part  of 
Israel  he  should  choose  aa  asylum,  there  was  lie  to  fce  allowed  to  remain  without 
molestation." 

E.    II.    CHAFEK. 

From  two  of  Mr.  Chapin's  published  works,  one  entitled  "  True  Man 
liness,"  the  other  "City  Life,"  we  make  the  following  extracts: 

"  I  pass  into  the  anti-slavery  meeting.  Here,  I  discover,  is  agitated  a  great  truth 
— the  natural  equality  of  all  men — the  right  of  the  poorest  and  lowest  to  be  free,  to 
breathe  God's  air  upon  what  hill-top  he  will,  to  follow  his  sunshine  around  the 
Garth  if  he  list — the  wrong  of  holding  him  in  bondage,  of  putting  him  by  force  to  do 

another's  work Intemperance,  slavery,  war.  what  are  these  but 

(he  flowering  plants  of  interior  sin? Activity  and  intelligence  in 
dicate  a  condition  of  material  and  individual  freedom.  A  community  which  really 
thrives  in  all  the  departments  of  its  industry,  must  be.  essentially,  a  free  community. 
Despotism  prevails  more  where  men  do  not  feel  that  they  have  much  at  stake  in 
the  country,  and  where  their  faculties  have  not  been  aroused.  But  the  toil  of  en 
terprise  and  the  sense  of  possession,  develop  a  consciousness  of  personality  which 
resists  encroachment  and  chafes  under  oppression." 

HEXEY    W.    BELLOWS. 

Writing  to  his  friend,  the  Rev.  Thos.  "W.  Higginson,  under  date  of 
Jan.  6,  1857,  Dr.  Bellows  says: 

The  last  election  has  shown  that  the  North  is  waking  up  in  conscience,  courage, 
and  sensibilty  to  her  duty,  not  to  herself  alone,  but  to  the  Nation,  the  Union,  and 
Humanity.  The  astonishing  effect  of  the  free  press  in  arousing  the  people,  indicat(  ?. 
what  will  be  the  triumph  of  another  election.  The  South  rees  for  the  first  time  th«t 
the  North  is  in  earnest,  feels  its  power,  and  is  determining  to  exercise  it.  And  this 
is  having  an  admirable  effect  upon  the  discussion  of  the  subject.  "W  hat  I  desire  now 
and  always  to  maintain  is  this :  That  our  conscientious  opposition  to  the  extension 
of  slavery  is  not  to  be  abated  or  colored  by  fears  for  the  Union  ;  and  that,  so  far 
as  it  depends  on  the  North,  we  arc  to  stop  its  extension,  let  the  consequences  to 
the  Union— to  the  North  or  the  South— be  what  they  will.  This  ground  I  believe 
to  be  the  safe  ground— the  Christian,  humane,  patriotic,  constitutional,  unsectional, 
Union-saving  ground.  I  take  it  as  a  lover  of  the  North  and  a  lover  of  the  South ; 
as  a  believer  in  the  future  of  the  United  States.  I  take  it  as  a  hater  of  slavery,  ai 
undying  foe  to  its  extension,  and  a  laborer  for  its  overthrow  and  extinction  in  th« 
ppeedicst  manner  and  time  consistent  with  our  whole  duty  as  American  citizens 


156  TESTIMONY    OF    LIVING    WITNESSES. 

LEWIB   T4.PPAN. 

In  his  thirteenth  annual  Report  to  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti< 
Slavery  Society,  Mr.  Tappan  says  : 

"Nature  cries  altud  against  the  inhumanities  of  slavery;  Free  Democracy  ab 
jures  the  hateful  system  ;  and  free  Christianity  recoils  from  its  leprous  touch.  Thai 
it  should  exist,  extend,  and  flourish  in  a  nation  planted  by  the  excellent  of  the  earth., 
and  in  opposition  to  the  principles  of  republicanism  and  Christianity,  excites  the 
marvel  and  arouses  the  grief  and  indignation  of  good  men  throughout  the  world. 

American  slavery  is  at  war  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 

the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  natural  justice,  and  Christianity.  Agitation 
on  the  subject  will  not,  therefore,  cease  while  free  discussion  is  allowed,  while  a  free 
press  exists,  while  Protestantism  and  Free  Democracy  are  prized,  while  love  to 
God  and  man  prevail,  until  the  curse  is  removed  from  the  Church  and  Government 

of  this  country,  and  all  its  citizens  are  equal  before  the  law It  is 

obvious  to  every  intelligent  and  candid  looker-on,  that  the  anti-slavery  cause,  in 
spite  of  the  sneers  of  opponents,  the  denunciations  of  men  in  power,  and  the  designs 
of  the  crafty,  is  steadily  pursuing  its  march  to  a  glorious  consummation." 

JOSHUA    LEAVITT. 

In  the  course  of  an  elaborate  article  on  national  politics,  Dr.  Leavitt, 
one  of  the  able  editors  of  the  Independent — a  New  York  weekly  reli 
gious  newspaper — says : 

"  The  ascendency  of  the  slave  power  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  obtained 
through  the  ill-advised  concessions  of  the  federal  constitution,  and  strengthened 
by  a  long  series  of  usurpations  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  surrenders  on  the  other,  is 
unjust,  dangerous  to  the  Union,  and  incompatible  with  the  preservation  of  free  go 
vernment  ;  and  is  the  principal  cause  of  the  political  and  financial  evils  under  which 
we  groan;  and  thus  the  only  hope  of  relief  is  in  a  united  determination  of  the  friends 
of  freedom,  to  employ  all  wise  and  lawful  means  forthe  extinction  of  slavery  itself." 

WILLIAM    GOODELL. 

In  his  careful  and  comprehensive  "View  of  the  Slavery  Question,"  Mr. 
Goodell  says : 

"  The  inherent  criminality  of  slavery  and  of  slave  holding,  their  utter  repugnance 
to  natural  justice,  to  Christianity,  to  the  law  of  nature,  to  the  law  of  God,  to  the  prin 
ciples  of  democracy,  to  the  liberties  of  the  country — no  longer  present  questions 
for  serious  discussion  among  the  great  body  of  intelligent  citizens  in  the  non-slave- 
holding  States.  Here  and  there  a  superatmated  ecclesiastic  (who  has,  perhaps,  a 
son  at  the  South,  or  in  a  college  seeking  Southern  patronage)  may  thumb  over  hia 
Polyglot,  and  pretend  to  lind  a  justification  of  slavery.  But  nobody  believes  him. 
His  disclaimers  and  self-contradictions  prove  that  he  does  not,  even  in  his  dotage, 

believe  it  himself. Under  the  good  providence  of  God,  the  disse'iv 

sions  among  abolitionists,  however  humiliating  to  them,  and  however  mischievous 
in  some  respects,  have  been  over-ruled  in  other  respects  for  good.  Abolitionism, 
before  the  division,  was  a  powerful  elixir,  in  the  phial  of  one  anti-slavery  organiza 
tion,  corked  up  tight,  and  carried  about  for  exhibition.  By  the  division,  the  phial 
was  broken  and  the  contents  spilled  over  the  whole  surface  of  society,  where  it  has 
been  working  as  a  leaven,  ever  since,  till  the  mass  is  beginning  to  upheave." 

SA1IUEL,   J.    MAY, 

In  his  speech  at  Syracuse,  ISTew  York,  Oct.  14,  1851,  Mr.    May  said  : 

"To  urge  that  our  Republic  cannot  be  maintained,  but  upon  principles  diametri 
cally  opposite  to  those  ?:pon  which  it  was  so  solemnly  based,  is  as  much  as  to  pro 
claim  to  the  world  that  our  Declaration  of  Independence  is  found  to  be  untrue  ;  and 
thus  rejoice  the  hearts  of  tyrants  throughout  the  world,  and  cast  down  forever  the 

hopes  of  the  oppressed  everywhere. Never  have  the  principles 

OH  which  the  civil  institutions  of  our  country  were  foi:nded  been  put  to  so  sever* 


TESTfMONY    OF    LIVING    WITNESSES.  157 

a  tsst,  as  at  this  day.  The  encroachments  of  the  despotic  power  01  a  slavehold- 
hag  oligarchy  upon  that  liberty  which  our  lathers  thought  they  had  bequeathed  us, 
have  been  made  to  such  an  extent,  that  the  champions  of  that  oligarchy  have,  on 
the  floor  of  our  national  Congress,  pronounced  the  glorious  declaration  of  '76,  that 
all  men  have  an  inalienable  right  to  liberty — a  mere  rhetorical  flourish — and  have 
dared  to  intimate  that  the  poor  and  laboring  people  of  the  Northern  States,  ought 
not  to  be  allowed  to  exercise  the  prerogatives  of  freemen,  any  more  than  the 
Southern  slaves.  And  by  the  machinery  of  partyism,  the  leaders  of  the  northern 
wings  of  the  two  political  hosts,  have  been  brought  to  acquiesce  in  the  supremacy 
of  the  slaveholding  power  in  our  country,  and  to  unite  in  requiring  of  us  all,  im 
plicit  obedience  to  its  demands,  though  they  violate,  utterly,  our  highest  sense  of 
light,  and  outrage  every  feeling  of  humanity." 

WILLIAM    CTTLLEST   BEYANT. 

In  his  paper  of  Oct.  27th,  1858,  Mr.  Bryant,  the  venerable  bard  and 
unbending  patriot,  who  has  so  long  and  so  ably  presided  over  the  edi 
torial  columns  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  says : 

"  By  instigations  to  violence  and  threats  of  mob-law,  the  free  expression  of 
opinion  in  regard  to  slavery  is  put  down  in  the  Southern  States.  Freedom  of 
speech  in  a  community  seems  to  depend  on  the  recognition  of  personal  freedom  in 
all  classes.  Wherever  slavery  is  introduced,  a  despotic  oligarchy  is  created,  which 

allows  of  no  more  liberty  of  speech  than  is  permitted  in  Austria 

The  slaveholding  aristocracy  is  the  most  cowardly  of  all  aristocracies.  It  lives  in 
constant  fear  of  overthrow  ;  it  knows  that  it  has  a  bad  name  ;  that  the  opinion  of 
the  world  is  against  it,  and,  as  those  are  apt  to  do  who  are  conscious  of  standing 
in  general  discredit,  it  puts  on  a  bold  face  and  plays  the  bully  where  it  has  the 
opportunity,  and  the  ruffian  where  it  has  the  power." 

HORACE    GEEELET. 

For  the  purpose  of  showing  that  Mr.  Greeley  is  not,  as  he  is  generally 
represented  by  the  oligarchy,  an  inveterate  hater  of  the  South,  we 
introduce  the  following  extracts  from  one  of  his  editorial  articles  in  a 
late  number  of  the  New  York  Tribune — a  most  faithful  and  efficient 
advocate  of  Free  Labor,  the  circulation  of  which  we  are  happy  to  be  able 
to  state,  is  greater  than  the  aggregate  circulation  of  a  score  or  more  of 
the  principal  pro-slavery  sheets  published  south  of  the  Potomac . 

u  Is  it  in  vain  that  we  pile  fact  upon  fact,  proof  on  proof,  showing  that  slavery 
is  a  blight  and  a  curse  to  the  States  which  cherish  it?  These  facts  are  multitudiu 
ous  as  the  leaves  of  the  forest ;  conclusive  as  the  demonstrations  of  geometry. 
Nobody  attempts  to  refute  them,  but  the  champions  of  slavery  extension  seem 
determined  to  persist  in  ignoring  them.  Let  it  be  understood,  then,  once  for  all, 
that  we  do  not  hate  the  South,  war  on  the  South,  nor  seek  to  ruin  the  South,  in 
resisting  the  extension  of  slavery.  We  most  earnestly  believe  human  bondage  a 
curse  to  the  South,  and  to  all  whom  it  affects ;  but  we  do  not  labor  for  its  overthrow 
otherwise  than  through  the  conviction  of  the  South  of  its  injustice  and  mischief. 
Its  extension  into  new  territories  we  determinedly  resist,  not  by  any  means  from 
ill  will  to  the  South,  but  under  the  impulse  of  good  will  to  all  mankind. 

u  Whenever  we  draw  a  parallel  between  Northern  and  Southern  production, 
industry,  thrift,  wealth,  the  few  who  seek  to  parry  the  facts  at  all  complain  that 
the  instances  are  unfairly  selected — that  the  commercial  ascendency  of  the  North, 
with  the  profits  and  facilities  thence  accruing,  accounts  for  the  striking  preponder 
ance  of  the  North.  In  vain  we  insist  that  slavery  is  the  cause  of  this  very  com 
mercial  ascendency — that  Norfolk  and  Richmond  and  Charleston  might  have  been 
to  this  country  what  Boston,  New  York  and  Philadelphia  now  are,  had  not  slavery 
spread  its  pall  over  and  paralyzed  the  energies  of  the  South." 

HENRY   J.    RAYMOND. 

In  his  paper  of  Sept.  3,  1856,  Mr.  Eaymond,  the  enterprising  and 
<*£OompU.sl;ocl  editor  of  the  New  York  Daily  Times,  say,«s  • 


158  TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   "WITNESSES. 

"  Here  at  the  North  everything  is  so  free— men  think  aiid  speak,  and  write  and 
print,  and  teach  so  freely  what  they  believe  to  be  true,  that  it  is  hard  to  realize 
the  actual  tyranny  which  slavery  has  established  over  our  Southern  brethren. 
How  thoroughly  it  rules  all  political  action,  we  know  from  incidents  of  daily  occur 
rence.  But  without  careful  study  we  cannot  credit  the  absolutism  of  its  sway  over 
literature,  the  education,  the  social  life,  the  religion  even,  of  the  Southern  States, 
No  man  there  dares  to  Avrite,  or  print,  or  speak  a  word  in  reprobation  of  slavery. 
The  editor  in  his  chair,  the  writer  at  his  desk,  the  clergyman  in  his  pulpit,  receive 
their  orders  from  slavery,  and  must  do  its  bidding.  Whatever  logic  and  reason 
may  say,  whatever  lessons  history  may  teach,  whatever  the  principles  of  Christ 
ian  brotherhood  may  require,  all  must  be  subordinate  and  secondary  to  the 
iiigLer  law  of  slavery." 

THTJKLOW    WEED. 

In  his  paper  of  Dec.  3,  1858,  Mr.  Weed,  who,  with  rare  ability  and 
success,  has  long  conducted  the  Albany  Evening  Journal,  says : 

"  It  has  always  been  the  practice  of  doughface  politicians  to  argue  as  if  the 
prosperity  of  the  North  depended  upon  the  degradation  of  the  South,  and  to  urge 
us  to  connive  at  the  spread  of  slavery  in  order  to  drive  a  profitable  trade  with  it. 
These  arguments  are  as  unphilosophical  as  they  are  unmanly.  The  States  are  so 
linked  by  commerce  that  whatever  benefits  one,  benefits  all,  and  whatever  clogs 
the  energies  of  one  is  a  drag  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  united  whole.  The  trade 
between  the  North  and  South  is  brisk,  but  it  would  be  threefold  as  great,  had  no 
slave  ever  been  imported  from  the  Guinea  Coast,  and  if  each  section  now  had  the 
products  of  its  own  intelligent  labor  to  exchange  for  those  of  the  other.  Let  the 
New  England  or  New  York  merchant  or  mechanic,  who  has  been  deceived  by  this 
doughface  plea,  ask  himself  whether  his  branch  of  business  is  the  better  or  the 
worse  for  having  in  the  Union  such  young,  vigorous  and  Free  States  as  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  and  whether  it  would 
be  worse  or  better  for  him,  if  they  had  come  in  slaveholding  communities  like 
Arkansas,  Texas  and  Florida?" 

J.    WATSON    WEBB. 

Iii  his  paper  of  Oct.  1,  1856,  Gen.  Webb,  the  veteran  editor  of  the 
New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer,  says : 

"It  is  idle,  it  is  worse  than  idle,  for  Southern  men  or  for  ourselves,  to  blind  the 
eyes  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  sense  of  the  civilized  world  that  African  slavery  is  a 
dishonor  and  a  reproach  to  the  American  Republic.  The  fact  that  the  principal 
nations  of  Europe  have  abolished  it  at  a  sacrifice,  and  set  it  down  in  the  catalogue 
of  crimes,  is,  in  itself,  irrefragable  proof  of  the  fact.  And  this  sense  weighs  most 
heavily  upon  those  Europeans  who  have  the  most  adequate  appreciation  of  the 
grandeur  of  our  Republic,  and  the  glorious  principles  upon  which  it  is  framed. 
The  venerable  Humboldt  speaks  as  the  representative  of  all  that  is  most  liberal 
and  enlightened  in  the  mind  of  Europe,  when  he  says  : 

"  '  But  there  is  one  tiling,  sir,  which  grieves  rue  more  than  I  can  describe,  and  that  is  the 
policy  you  have  lately  adopted  in  regard  to  slavery.  I  am  not  so  unreasonable  as  to  expect 
that  you  should  instantly  emancipate  your  slaves  I  know  well  the  formidable  difficulties  that 
you  have  to  contend  with  in  solving  the  problem  of  slavery.  But  what  occasions  deep  sex-row 
and  pain,  believe  me,  to  all  lovers  of  your  great  country,  is  to  find  that,  instead  of  adopting 
any  means,  however  slow  and  gradual,  to  relieve  yourselves  of  it,  you  are  constantly  trying 
to  extend  and  consolidate  a  system  which  is  not  only  opposed  to  all  the  principles  of  morality, 
but,  as  it  appears  to  me,  is  pregnant  with  appalling  and  inevitable  dangers  to  the  future  of 
the  Republic  itself.  Tell  your  countrymen  this  from  me.' 

41  Every  man  in  the  civilized  world,  who  has  a  life  to  live  in  this  nineteenth  cen 
tury,  has  an  interest  in  this  struggle.  Whether  they  are  on  the  immediate  field  or 
not,  they  all  rnuvi  more  or  less  participate  in  its  fortunes  Human  hearts  have 
fh'oii1  affinities  and  mutual  influences,  which  distance  cannot  dissipate,  or  difference 
in  outward  circumstances  neutralize.  Ideas,  too,  in  the?e  times,  are  winged;  and 
v'vhcther  good  or  evil,  they  find,  fly  where  they  may,  principles  and  aims  german 
to,  if  not  identical  with,  those  they  serve  in  the'  land  of  their  origin,  or  at  least  the 
conditions  out  of  which  such  principles  and  aims  may  spring.  They  are  a?  S'ira 
averywhe.re  of  the  same  human  nature  as  of  the  same  ambient  atmosphere  ' 


TESTIMONY   OF  LIVING   WITNESSES.  159 


GAMALIEL  BAILEY. 

As  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  National  Era,  Dr.  Bailey,  of  Wash 
ington,  D.  0.,  whose  very  able  and  consistent  management  of  the  paper 
has  entitled  him  to  the  higL  regard  of  every  true  lover  of  liberty, 
says : 

"  The  tendency  of  slavery  to  diffuse  itself,  and  to  crowd  out  free  labor,  was  early 
observed  by  American  patriots,  North  and  South  ;  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  great 
apostle  of  Kepublicanism,  made  an  effort  in  178-i  to  cut  short  the  encroaching  tide 
of  barbaric  despotism,  by  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  Union, 
down  to  thirty-one  degrees  of  latitude,  which  was  then  our  Southern  boundary. 
His  beneficent  purpose  failed,  not  for  want  of  a  decisive  majority  of  votes  present 
in  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation,  but  in  consequence  of  the  absence  of  the 
delegates  from  one  or  two  States,  which  were  necessary  to  the  constitutional  ma 
jority.  When  the  subject  again  came  up,  in  1787,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  minister  to 
France,  and  the  famous  ordinance  of  that  year  was  adopted,  prohibiting  slavery 
North  and  West  of  the  Ohio  River.  Between  1784  and  1787,  the  strides  of  slavery 
westward  into  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  had  become  too  considerable  to  admit  of 
the  policy  of  exclusion  ;  and  besides  those  regions  were  then  integral  parts  of 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and  of  course  they  could  not  be  touched  without  the 
consent  of  those  States.  In  1820,  another  effort  was  made  to  arrest  the  progress 
of  slavery,  which  threatened  to  monopolize  the  whole  Territory  west  of  the 
Mississippi.  In  the  meantime  the  South  had  apostatized  from  the  faith  of  Jefferson. 
It  had  ceased  to  love  universal  liberty,  and  the  growing  importance  of  the  cotton 
culture  had  caused  the  people  to  look  with  indifference  upon  the  moral  deformity  of 
slavery  ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  politicians  became  its  apologists  and 
defenders.  After  a  severe  struggle  a  compromise  was  agreed  upon,  by  which 
Missouri  was  to  be  admitted  with  slavery,  which  was  the  immediate  point  in  con 
troversy  ;  and  slavery  was  to  be  excluded  from  all  the  territory  north  and  west  of 
that  State. 

"  We  have  shown,  from  the  most  incontestable  evidence,  that  there  is  in  slave 
society  a  much  greater  tendency  to  diffuse  itself  into  new  regions,  than  belongs  to 
freedom,  for  the  reason  that  it  has  no  internal  vitality.  It  cannot  live  if  circum 
scribed,  and  must,  like  a  consumptive,  be  continually  roving  for  a  change  of  air  to 
recuperate  its  Avasting  energies." 


HAKEIET   BEECHER    STOWE. 

In  her  "Key  to  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  Mrs.  Stowe,  whoso  name  is 
everywhere  wreathed  and  immortalized  on  the  scrolls  of  liberty 
says : 

"  Slavery  is  a  simple  retrogression  of  society  to  the  worst  abuses  of  the  middle 
ages.  We  must  not,  therefore,  be  surprised  to  find  the  opinions  and  practices  of 

the  middle  ages,  as  to  civil  and  religious  toleration,  prevailing It  is 

no  child's  play  to  attack  an  institution  which  has  absorbed  into  itself  so  much  of 
the  political  power  and  wealth  of  this  nation.  The  very  heart  shrinks  to  think 
what  the  faithful  Christian  must  endure  who  assails  this  institution  on  its  own 
ground:  but  it  must  be  done.  How  was  it  at  the  North?  There  was  a  universal 
effort  to  put  down  the  discussion  of  it  here  by  mob-law.  Printing-presses  were 
broken,  houses  torn  down,  property  destroyed.  Brave  men,  however,  stood,  firm  • 
martyr  blood  was  shed  for  the  right  of  free  opinion  in  speech  ;  and  so  the  right  of 
discussion  was  established.  Nobody  tries  that  sort  of  argument  now — its  day  is 
past.  In  Kentucky,  also,  they  tried  to  stop  the  discussion' by  similar  means.  Mob 
violence  destroyed  a  printing  press,  and  threatened  the  lives  of  individual?.  But 
there  were  brave  men  there,  who  feared  not  violence  or  threats  of  death  ;  and 
emancipation  is  now  open  for  discussion  in  Kentucky.  The  fact  is  the  South  must 
discuss  the  matter  of  slavery.  She  cannot  shut  it  out,  imless  she  lays  an  embargo 
on  the  literature  of  the  whole  civilized  world  ;  if  it  be,  indeed,  divine  and  God-ap 
pointed,  why  does  she  so  tremble  to  have  it  touched  ?  If  it  be  of  God,  all  the  free 
Inquiry  in  the  world  cannot  overthrow  re.  Discussion  must  and  will  come.  It  onlj 
requires  courageous  men  to  lead  the  way  n 


160  TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING   WITNESSES. 

MATTIE     GRIFFITH. 

In  her  very  able  and  interesting  "  Autobiography  of  a  Female  Slave," 
a  work  of  fiction  which  is  fuller  of  fact  than  any  book  of  the  kind  that 
we  have  ever  read — a  work  which,  for  vivid,  accurate  delineation  of  in 
door  life  in  the  South,  and  for  terse,  graphic  portrayal  of  slaveholding 
manners  and  morals,  has  no  equal — Miss  Griffith,  one  of  Kentucky's 
truest  and  noblest  daughters,  who,  by  the  emancipation  of  her  own 
slaves,  has  set  a  lofty  example  of  pure  patriotism  and  benevolence,  says, 
writing  pointedly  to  the  people  of  her  native  Stafe  : 

"  By  the  oppression  to  wliicli  we  were  subjected  under  tlie  yoke  of  Britain,  and 
against  which  we  wrestled  so  long,  so  patiently,  so  vigorously,  in  so  many  ways, 
and  at  last  so  triumphantly,  I  adjure  you  to  put  an  end,  at  once,  and  forever,  to  the 
disreputable  and  despotic  business  of  holding  slaves.  African  slavery,  as  practised 
in  America,  is  oppression  indeed,  in  comparison  with  which,  that  which  drew  forth 
our  angry  and  bitter  complaints  against  England,  was  very  freedom.  Let  us,  in- 
Btead  of  perpetuating  the  infamous  s}Tstem  of  slavery,  be  true  to  ourselves  ;  let  us 
vindicate  the  pretensions  we  set  up  when  we  characterize  ours  as  the  '  land  of 
liberty,  the  asylum  of  the  oppressed,'  by  proclaiming  to  the  nations  of  the  earth 
that,  so  soon  as  a  slave  touches  the  soil  of  the  United  States,  his  manacles  shall 
fall  from  him  :  let  us  verify  the  words  engraven  in  enduring  brass  on  the  old  bell 
which,  from  the  tower  of  Independence  Hall,  rang  out  our  glorious  Declaration,  and 
in  deed  and  in  truth  proclaim  'Liberty  to  the  captive,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison 
doors  to  them  that  are  bound.'  As  you  value  truth,  honor,  justice,  consistency — 
aye,  humanity  even,  wipe  out  the  black  blot  which  defiles  the  border  of  our 
escutcheon,  and  the  country  will  then  be  in  reality  what  it  is  now  only  in  name,  a 
free  country,  loving  liberty  disinterestedly  for  its  own  sake,  and  for  that  of  all 
peoples,  and  nations,  and  tribes,  and  tongues." 

SAKAII   M.    GRIMKE. 

In  her  "Eeasons  for  Action  at  the  North,"  Miss  Griinke,  an  estimable, 
right-minded  lady,  from  South  Carolina,  says  : 

"Let  Northerners  respectfully  ask  for  an  alteration  in  that  part  of  the  Constitu 
tion  by  which  they  are  bound  to  assist  the  South  in  quelling  servile  insurrections. 
Let  them  see  to  it  that  they  send  no  man  to  Congress  who  would  give  his  vote  to 
the  admission  of  another  slave  State  into  the  national  Union.  Let  them  protest 
against  the  injustice  and  cruelty  of  delivering  the  fugitive  slave  back  to  his  master 
as  being  a  direct  infringement  of  the  Divine  command,  Let  them  petition  their 
different  Legislatures  to  grant  a  jury  trial  to  the  friendless,  helpless  runaway,  and 
for  the  repeal  of  those  laws  which  secure  to  the  slaveholder  his  unjust  claim  to  his 
slave,  after  he  has  voluntarily  brought  him  within  the  verge  of  their  jurisdiction, 
and  for  the  enactment  of  such  laws  as  will  protect  the  colored  man,  woman,  and 
child  from  the  fangs  of  the  kidnapper,  who  is  constantly  skulking  about  in  the 
Northern  States,  seeking  whom  he  may  devour.  Let  the  Northern  churches  refuse 
to  receive  slaveholders  at  their  communion  tables,  or  to  permit  slaveholding  minis 
ters  to  officiate  in  their  pulpits." 

ANGELINA    E.    WELD. 

In  her  eloquent  "  Appeal  to  the  Women  of  the  Nominally  Free  States,  • 
Mrs.  Weld,  of  New  Jersey,  formerly  Miss  Grimke,  of  South  Carolina, 
says  : 

"  It  is  not  the  character  alone  of  the  mistress  that  is  deeply  injured  by  the  posses 
sion  and  exercise  of  despotic  power,  nor  is  it  the  degradation  and  suffering  to  whicli 
the  slave  is  continually  subject ;  but  another  important  consideration  is,  that  in 
consequence  of  the  dreadful  state  of  morals  at  the  South,  the  wife  and  the  daughtei 
sometimes  find  their  homes  a  scene  of  the  most  mortifying,  heart-rending  prefer 


TESTIMONY    OF   LiTING    WITNESSES.  161 

.mce  of  the  degraded  domestic,  or  the  colored  daughter  of  the  hea.  of  the  family. 
There  are,  alas,  too  many  families,  of  which  the  contentious  of  Abraham's  house 
hold  is  a  fair  example.  But  we  forbear  to  lift  the  veil  of  private  life  any  higher ; 
let  these  few  hints  suffice  to  give  you  some  idea  of  what  is  daily  passing  behind  that 
curtain  which  has  been  so  carefully  drawn  before  the  scenes  of  domestic  life  in 
slavcholding  America." 

JOHN   C.    UNDEEWOOD. 

Remonstrating  against  the  consummate  system  of  despotism  which 
txiled  him  from  his  home  and  family  in  Virginia,  in  1856,  Mr.  Under 
wood  says : 

"  The  history  of  the  world,  and  especially  of  the  States  of  this  Union,  shows  most 
conclusively  that  public  prosperity  bears  an  almost  mathematical  proportion  to  the 
degree  of  freedom  enjoyed  by  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  State.  Men  will  always 
work  better  for  the  cash  than  for  the  lash.  The  free  laborer  will  produce  and  save 
as  much,  and  consume  and  waste  as  little  as  he  can.  The  slave,  on  the  contrary, 
will  produce  and  save  as  little,  and  consume  and  waste  as  much  as  possible.  Hence 
States  and  countries  filled  with  the  former  class  must  necessarily  flourish  and  in 
crease  in  population,  arts,  manufactures,  wealth  and  education,  because  they  are 
animated  and  incited  by  all  the  vigor  of  the  will,  while  States  and  countries  "filled 
with  the  latter  class,  must  exhibit  comparative  stagnation,  because  it  is  a  universal 
law  of  nature  that  force  and  fear  end  in  ruin  and  decay.  We  have  an  instructive 
example  of  the  one  class  in  the  activity,  enterprise,  prosperity  and  intelligence  of 
New  England,  and  of  the  other  in  the  pitiable  condition  of  poor  South  Carolina, 
a  State  which,  by  neglecting  the  teachings  of  her  Marions,  and  following  her  Butlers, 
her  Brqokses,  her  Keitts,  and  her  Quattlebums,  in  the  race  of  aristocracy  and  Afri 
canization,  is  rapidly  sinking  into  agricultural  sterility,  bloated  egotism,  and  brutal 
barbarism,  until  she  has  most  significantly  adopted  a  cane  for  her  emblem,  which 
equally  and  strikingly  typifies  her  military  resources,  and  that  imbecility  and  de 
crepitude  which,  without  something  to  lean  upon,  must  inevitably  fall  into  s™>eedy 
death  and  dissolution." 

DANIEL   E.    GOODLOE. 

As  assistant  editor  of  the  National  Era,  the  best  centrally  located 
Republican  paper  in  the  country,  Mr.  Goodloe,  formerly  of  North  Caro 
lina,  says : 

"  The  history  of  the  United  States  shows,  that  while  the  slave  States  increase  in 
population  less  rapidly  than  the  free,  there  is  a  tendency  in  slave  society  to  diffu 
sion,  greater  than  is  exhibited  by  free  society.  In  fact,  diffusion,  or  extension  of 
area,  is  one  of  the  necessities  of  slavery;  the  prevention  of  which  is  regarded  aa 
directly  and  immediately  menacing  to  the  existence  of  the  institution.  This  arises 
from  the  almost  exclusive  application  of  slave  labor  to  the  one  occupation  of  agri 
culture,  and  the  difficulty,  if  not  impossibility,  of  diversifying  employments.  Free 
society,  on  the  contrary,  has  indefinite  resources  of  development  within  a  restricted 
area.  It  will  far  excel  slave  society  in  the  cultivation  of  the  ground — first,  on  ac 
count  of  the  superior  intelligence  of  the  laborers;  and  secondly,  in  consequence  of 
the  greater  and  more  various  demands  up  on  the  earth's  products,  where  commerce, 
manufactures,  and  the  arts,  abound.  Then,  these  arts  of  life,  by  bringing  men  to- 
eethcr  in  cities  and  towns,  and  employing  them  in  the  manufacture  or  transporta 
tion  of  the  raw  materials  of  the  farmer,  give  rise  to  an  indefinite  increase  of  wealth 
and  population.  The  confinement  of  a  free  people  within  narrow  limits  seems  only 
to  develop  new  resources  of  wealth,  comfort  and  happiness;  while  slave  society, 
pent  up,  withers  and  dies.  It  must  continually  be  fed  by  new  fields  and  forests,  to 
be  wasted  and  wilted  under  the  poisonous  tread  of  the  slave." 

BEX  JAM  IN   S.    HEDEIOK. 

For  daring  to  have  political  opinions  of  his  own,  and  because  he  did 
not  deem  it  his  duty  to  conceal  the  fact  that  he  loved  liberty  better  than 
slavery,  Prof.  Iledrick,  whose  testimony  we  now  offer,  was  peremptorily 
dismissed  from  his  post  as  Analytical  and  Agricultural  Chemist  in  the 


162  TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING    WITNESSES. 

University  of  North  Carolina,  ignominiously  subjected  to  the  indignities 
of  a  mob,  and  then  savagely  driven  beyond  the  borders  of  his  native 
State.  His  tyrannical  persecutors,  if  not  called  to  settle  their  accounts 
in  another  world  within  the  next  ten  years,  will  probably  survive  to 
repent  of  the  enormity  of  their  pro-slavery  folly. 

In  a  letter  vindicating  his  course  at  Chapil  Hill — his  only  offence 
having  been  a  mild  expression  of  opinion  in  favor  of  Republicanism — 
Prof.  II.  says : 

"Of  my  neighbors,  friends  and  kindred,  nearly  one-half  have  left  the  State  since  1 
was  old  enough  to  remember.  Many  is  the  time  I  have  stood  by  the  loaded  emigrant 
wagon,  and  given  the  parting  hand  to  those  whose  faces  I  was  never  to  look  upon 
again.  They  were  going  to  seek  homes  in  the  free  West,  knowing,  as  they  did.  that 
free  and  slave  labor  could  not  both  exist  and  prosper  in  the  same  community.  If  any 
one  thinks  that  I  speak  without  knowledge,  let  him  refer  to  the  last  census.  He 
will  there  find  that  in  1850  there  were  fifty-eight  thousand  native  North  Carolinians 
living  in  the  free  States  of  the  West — thirty-three  thousand  in  Indiana  alone.  There 
were,  at  the  same  time,  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  Virginians  living  in  the 
free  States.  Now,  if  these  people  were  so  much  in  love  with  the  'institution,'  why 
did  they  not  remain  where  they  could  enjoy  its  blessings? 

"  From  my  knowledge  of  the  people  of  North  Carolina,  I  believe  that  the  majority 
of  them  who  will  go  to  Kansas  during  the  next  five  years,  would  prefer  that  it 
should  be  a  free  State.  I  am  sure  that  if  I  were  to  go  there  I  should  vote  to  ex- 
clu.ie  slavery.'/ 

MOXCURE    D.    CONWAY. 

In  his  volume  entitled  "  Tracts  for  To-day,"  Mr.  Conway,  of  Cincin 
nati,  Ohio,  formerly  of  Virginia,  says : 

"As  a  Virginian,  with  no  ties  of  relationship  northward  of  the  remotest  kind, 
past  or  present,  I  feel  how  easily  I  might  slide  into  a  justification  of  my  dear 
mother,  the  South.  But  the  soul  knows  no  prejudices  or  sections,  and  must  see  all 

under  the  pure  light  of  reason  and  conscience I  fear  that,  with  the 

majority  of  us,  the  binding  of  a  slave  is  not  so  horr&le  as  the  doubting  of  a 
miracle The  first  error  of  the  South  has  been  an  impatience  in  the  dis 
cussion  of  the  slavery  question,  reminding  calm  men  of  those  unfortunate  persons 
met  with  in  lunatic  asylums,  who  speak  rationally  on  all  topics  until  you  touch  that 
on  which  they  are  deranged,  when  their  insanity  bursts  wildly  forth.  This  has 
caused  them  to  put  themselves  in  an  attitude  before  the  world  which  has  brought 
down  its  severest  censure  ;  and,  feeling  that  this  was  not  jast  what  they  deserved — * 
since  they  were  at  least  sincere — it  has  led  them  on  to  a  still  greater  rage  against  a 
judgment  which,  however  unfair,  was  the  result  of  their  own  mistaken  heat.  It 
has  precluded  freedom  of  discussion  even  among  themselves,  a  policy  which  no 
human  brain  or  heart  ever  respected  yet.  The  native  sons  of  the  South  have 
again  and  again  sought  to  discuss  it  in  their  own  vicinities,  and  have  as  often  been 
threatened  and  visited  with  angry  processes,  though  the  privilege  is  secured  to  them 
in  the  Bill  of  Rights  of  nearly  every  Southern  State.  The  South  has  thus  lost  the 
confidence  of  many  of  her  own  children,  who  find  that  a  freedom  exercised  by 
their  lordly  ancestors,  Washington,  Jefferson,  Henry,  and  by  them  transmitted 
as  an  eternal  inheritance,  is  now  denied  them  by  men  who,  beside  those,  are 
lilliputian." 

J.    E.    SXODGRASS. 

Vindicating  his  course,  as  editor  of  the  Baltimore  Saturday  Visitor, 
against  an  unsuccessful  attempt  of  certain  members  of  the  Maryland 
Legislature,  in  1846,  to  suppress  his  paper  and  procure  his  imprison 
ment,  Dr.  Snodgrass,  of  Virginia,  more  recently  of  Maryland,  now  of 
New  York,  said : 

"  There  need  be  no  fear  cf  my  arraying  the  slave  against  his  master  (us  I  have 
been  charged  with  doing),  however  anxious  I  may  be  to  array  the  sympathies  of 


TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES.  163 

the  master  in  favor  of  his  slave ;  in  other  words,  to  bring  about  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  Maryland  by  lawful  as  well  as  peaceful  means,  and  with  results  which 
shall  convince  my  accusers  that  I  have  been  the  best  friend  of  both  master  and 
slave,  and  that  the  adoption  of  such  views  as  I  have  been  wont  to  promulge  on  all 
suitable  occasions,  both  in  the  Visitor  and  in  my  private  intercourse  with  my 
fellow-citizens,  would  be  the  surest  guaranty  of  the  glorious  redemption  of  Maiy- 
land  from  the  thrallclom  of  an  institution  which  has  been  her  ever-present  curse, 
hanging,  as  it  does,  like  an  incubus  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  State,  and  utterly 
crushing  her  every  hope  of  future  progress." 

JOHN   G.    FEE. 

In  his  " Anti-Slavery  Manual,"  Mr.  Fee,  a  noble,  self-sacrificing 
preacher  of  a  free  Gospel  in  Kentucky,  says  : 

u  Slavery  causes  the  slaves  to  disregard  the  relation  of  marriage  and  practise  the 
consequent  vice,  concubinage.  In  our  land,  marriage,  as  a  civil  ordinance,  they  dc 
not  enjoy.  Our  laws  do  not  recognize  this  relation  among  them,  nor  defend  it,  nor 
enforce  its  duties.  This  would  interfere  with  the  claims  and  interest  of  the  master. 
Hence,  to  use  the  language  of  the  slaves  themselves,  they  '  take  up  with  one 
another.'  And  this  continues  as  long  as  their  own  convenience,  and  that  of  the 
master,  requires. 

"Marriage  is  the  great  preservative  against  the  abhorrent  vices  of  concubinage 
and  adultery.  It  is  the  origin  of  those  strong  ties  which  cement  and  bind  together 
society.  It  is  the  fountain  of  the  dearest  earthly  pleasures  that  man  enjoys — 
domestic  bliss.  Without  it,  the  endearing  relations  of  husband  and  wife,  parent 
and  child,  would  be  unknown.  Without  it.  man  and  woman  would  wander  forth, 
selfish,  shameless,  and  unrestrained,  like  one  vast  herd  of  brutes.  And  yet  the 
very  tendency  of  our  system  of  slavery  is  to  abolish  it.  Christians  !  yea,  all  lovers 
of  virtue  and  order  !  what  would  you  think,  and  how  would  you  act,  did  these  evils 
exist  to  the  same  extent  among  the  whites  ?  And  are  they  any  the  less  ruinous  to 
society,  and  any  the  less  criminal  in  the  sight  of  God,  in  the  black  man  than  in  the 
white  man?  How  many  there  are  among  us  who  are  parents,  and  yet  know  no 
one  whom  they  can  call  husband  or  wife  !  And  how  many,  even  of  those  in  whose 
veins  courses  much  of  the  blood  of  the  white  man,  who  know  not  their  parents  ! 
Oh !  is  it  true  that  there  is  a  single  woman  in  the  whole  South  who  is  opposed  to 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  when  she  remembers  how  many  bosoms  have  been  wrung 
with  anguish  at  the  reflection  that  the  husbands  of  their  choice  have  been  unfaith 
ful,  incases  that  never  would  have  occurred  had  it  not  been  for  slavery?  And  I 
will  ask  one  more  question.  Is  there  in  our  State,  even  among  Christians,  as  much 
regard  for  the  purity  of  the  marriage  relation  of  their  slaves,  and  the  proper  descent 
of  slave  children,  as  there  is  to  have  the  best  stock  of  sheep,  hogs,  cattle,  to  say 
nothing  of  horses?  May  God  pardon  our  shameful  neglect  of  a  relation  which  he 
has  so  greatly  honored." 

JAMES   D.    PP.ETTY.8t AN. 

As  editor  of  the  Peninsular  News  and  Advertiser,  published  in  Milford, 
Del.,  Dr.  Pretty  man,  who  is  there  laboring  manfully  for  the  right,  says  : 

"  The  great  question  to  be  settled  by  the  people  of  this  country  in  this  the  nine 
teenth  century  is,  whether  this  boasted  land  of  freedom  shall  become  a  nation  of 
masters  and  slaves,  or  whether  it  shall  be  made  a  land,  the  atmosphere  of  which  no 

slave  can  breathe  and  live  a  slave We  were  born  in  a  land  of 

slavery,  have  lived  in  a  land  of  slavery,  and  are  now  writing  in  a  land  which  is 
deeply  injured  by  slavery,  and  have  had  an  opportunity  to  see  and  know  something 
of  its  inhumanity  and  wrong.  We  often  wonder  by  what  process  of  reasoning  men 
justify  themselves  in  advocating  the  base,  blighting  institution.  Slavery  is  bad 
policy,  it  is  an  obstacle  to  the  prosperity  of  the  State,  it  has  a  demoralizing  effect 
on  both  master  and  slave,  it  is  the  origin  of  inhumanity,  injustice  and  crime  ;  but 
far  above  all  other  arguments,  objections,  and  sentiments  of  policy  stands  the  un 
concealed  truth,  that  it  is  wrong.  It  originated  in  wrong  ;  it  is  the  greatest  wrong 
of  our  age." 

JOHN  DJXON   LONG. 

In  his  "Pictures  of  Slavery,"  the  painting  of  which  aroused  tho  mob 
onratio  ire  of  his  slaveholding  neighbors,  who  forced  him  to  leave  tht 


164:  TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING    WITNESSES. 

State,  Mr.  Long,  of  Maryland,  a  minister  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  says: 

"It  is  contended  that  if  the  general  conference  should  make  Elaveholding  a  test 
of  membership,  the  preachers  will  not  attempt  to  carry  it  out  in  slaveholding  ter 
ritory.  Very  well.  Then  the  responsibility  will  rest  on  the  preachers  and  members 
of  that  particular  locality.  The  church  at  large  and  the  discipline  would  be  free 
from  slaveholding  taint ;  and  brethren  at  the  North  and  West  would  no  longer  have 
their  cheeks  mantled  with  shame,  when  infidels  point  to  the  discipline  as  it  is,  and 
prove  that  it  allows  men  to  hold  human  beings  in  ignorance  and  slavery,  and  will 
them  at  death  to  ungodly  relatives,  who  may  sell  them  as  oxen.  Let  no  man  in 
the  ministry  or  the  laity  of  the  M.  E.  Church  leave  her  communion  because  her  dis 
cipline  is  not  yet  perfect ;  but  let  him  pray  and  labor ,  and  lift  up  his  voice  against 
the  abominations  of  chattel  slavery,  till  a  sound  public  opinion  shall  blow  it  away 
like  chaff  before  the  whirlwind." 

WILLIAM    9.    BAILEY. 

In  his  paper  of  May  13,  1859,  in  an  article  on  the  gubernatorial  cam 
paign,  then  progressing  in  his  State,  Mr.  Bailey,  the  intrepid,  mob-defy- 
ing,  persevering  editor  ot  the  Free  South,  published  in  Newport,  Ken 
tucky,  says : 

u  It  must  strike  the  mind  of  every  reflecting  man  in  Kentucky,  as  something 
strange  and  abnormal,  to  see  the  rank  and  file  of  the  two  political  parties  in  the 
State  engaged  in  a  rivalry  for  extending  over  the  domain  of  the  Union  the  system 
of  human  chattelism  which  has  been  a  blight  and  a  curse  to  their  own  common 
wealth.  Such  mad-cap  zeal  and  transparent  folly  cannot  long  sway  the  minds  of 
intelligent  and  honest  men.  There  must  be  a  reaction  speedily,  unless  the  propa 
gandists  succeed  in  carrying  their  measures,  and  in  binding  the  white  freemen  oi' 
the  country  in  fetters,  before  they  become  aroused  to  the  impending  danger. 

"  The  present  discussion,  though  of  little  moment  in  itself  considered,  may  have 
some  beneficial  results.  It  may  open  the  eyes  of  some  men  who  have  heretofore 
seemed  half  asleep,  to  the  humiliating  and  disgraceful  fact  that  our  governments, 
State  and  National,  are  fast  becoming  mere  engines  for  the  perpetuation  and  pro 
pagation  of  slavery.  In  this  direction,  they  are  impelled  by  the  slave-holding  oli 
garchy,  which  aims  at  nothing  short  of  the  entire  subjection  of  the  whole  country 
to  the  iron  will  of  its  despotism." 

EIOTIAED    HILDEETH. 

In  his  "Despotism  in  America,"  Mr.  Hildreth,  the  eminent  historian, 
says: 

"  Slavery  is  a  continuation  of  the  state  of  war.  It  is  true  that  one  of  the  comba 
tants  is  subdued  and  bound ;  but  the  war  is  not  terminated.  If  I  do  not  put  the 
captive  to  death,  this  apparent  clemency  does  not  arise  from  any  good  will  toward 
him,  or  any  extinction  on  my  part  of  hostile  feelings  and  intentions.  I  spare  his 
life  merely  because  I  expect  to  be  able  to  put  him  to  a  use  more  advantageous  to 
myself.  And  if  the  captive,  on  the  other  hand,  feigns  submission,  still  he  is  only 
watching  for  an  opportunity  to  escape  my  grasp,  and  if  possible  to  inflict  upon  me 
evils  as  great  as  those  to  which  I  have  subjected  him. 

"  War  is  justly  regarded,  and  with  the  progress  of  civilization  it  comes  every 
day  more  and  more  to  be  regarded,  as  the  very  greatest  of  social  calamities.  The 
introduction  of  slavery  into  a  community,  amounts  to  an  eternal  protraction  of  that 
calamity,  and  a  universal  diffusion  of  it  through  the  whole  mass  of  society,  and  that 
too,  in  its  most  ferocious  form." 

O.    B.    FEOTHIXGHAM. 

In  his  speech  before  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  in  New  York, 
May  8,  1856,  Mr.  Frothingham  inquired  : 

"  When  shall  we  learn  to  speak  plainly  and  sincerely  against  slavery,  and  to  fol 
low  up  our  speech  by  our  deeds  ?  When  shall  we  learn  to  throw  our  whole  action 
unreservedly  OD  iho  side  of  God  ?  When  will  we  believe  that  ho  who  seeks  first 


TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING    WITNESSES.  165 

the  kingdom  of  heaven  shall  have  evei'ything else  added  to  him?  They  threaten  us 
with  war  if  we  take  this  position.  Useless  threat!  The  war  is  already  declared  ! 
The  war  has  already  begun  !  The  war  lias  been  raging  for  half  a  century  1  Slavery 
itself  is  a  condition  of  war.  It  had  its  origin  in  war,  ita  lirst  victims  being  cap 
tives  of  the  spear.  It  lives  by  war — its  agents  being  perpetually  engaged  in  fo 
menting  feuds  between  the  native  princes  of  Africa  to  gain  material  for  their  traffic. 
It  protects  itself  by  Avar — it  hides  behind  walls  and  gates — it  rings  alarm  bells  ;  its 
barracks  are  guarded  by  armed  patrols — it  never  walks  abroad  without  bowie- 
knife  and  pistol — it  appears  in  Boston,  and  the  streets  bristle  with  files  of  soldiery 
— the  hall  of  justice  is  stunned  by  the  din  of  arms — outcast  radians  and  murderers 
stalk  about  insulting  the  citizens.  It  extends  itself  by  war,  riding  into  Kansas  with 
rifle  and  halter,  to  conquer  a  territory  it  has  stolen  ;  substituting  martial  for  civil 
law,  and  proclaiming  the  warrior's  axiom  that  might  is  right.  The  very  virtues 
incident  to  a  state  of  slavery,  the  virtues  of  the  dominant  class,  are  warlike  virtues 
such  as  belong  to  the  soldier  alone.  The  dashing  recklessness,  the  hot-blooded 
chivalry,  the  lavish  generosity,  the  fiery  sense  of  honor,  the  careless  gaiety,  the 
frank,  easy,  good  nature,  the  impetuous  passion,  whether  of  love  or  hate,  the 
swaggering  grace,  the  luxury,  all  mark  the  soldier.  Such  qualities  arc  peculiar  to 
feudal,  which  is  military,  society.  Slavery  is  ever  breathing  menaces  of  war.  On 
the  least  provocation  it  offers  battle.  For  fifty  years  it  has  kept  the  country  on 
the  brink  of  civil  broils.  Only  the  greatest  moderation  on  our  part  has  saved  us 
from  bloodshed.  It  has  submitted  Boston  to  martial  rule  ;  it  is  waging  war  in  Kan 
sas.  The  North  stands  on  the  defensive  with  a  pistol  pointed  at  her  breast.  What 
is  to  be  done  ?  We  must  fight — in  behalf  of  peace  and  order  we  must  fight." 

PARKE   GODWIN. 

In  his  volume  entitled  "Political  Essays,"  Mr.  Godwin,  who  always 
treats  his  subjects  with  remarkable  elucidation  and  thoroughness,  says  : 

"When  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  formed,  slavery  existed  in 
nearly  all  the  States;  but  it  existed  as  an  acknowledged  evil,  which,  it  was  hoped, 
the  progress  of  events  would,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  extinguish.  With  the 
exception  of  South  Carolina,  there  was  not  a  State  in  which  some  decided  ell'orts 
hail  not  been  made  toward  its  alleviation  and  ultimate  removal.  It  was  this  feel 
ing,  that  it  was  an  evil,  and  that  it  would  soon  be  abated,  •which  excluded  all  men 
tion  of  slavery  by  name  from  the  Constitution,  and  which  led  to  the  adoption  of  such 
phraseology,  in  the  parts  referring  to  the  subject,  that  they  do  riot  necessarily  imply 
its  existence.  The  Constitution  was  made  lor  all  time,  while  the  makers  of  it  sup 
posed  slavery  to  be  but  a  transient  fact,  and  the  terms  of  it  consequently  were 
adapted  to  the  larger  purpose,  and  not  to  the  temporary  existence.  A  jurist  from 
the  interior  of  China,  who  knew  nothing  from  the  actual  condition  of  our  countn, 
or  Justinian,  could  he  arise  from  the  dead,  would  never  learn,  from  the  mere  read 
ing  of  that  instrument,  of  the  existence  of  slavery.  lie  would  read  of  '  persons  held 
to  service,'  and  of  certain  '  other  persons,'  who  were  to  be  counted  only  as  tliree- 
ilfths  in  the  distribution  of  representative  population  ;  but  he  would  never  imagine 
them,  unless  expressly  told,  a  species  of  property.  The  general  sentiment  was 
averse  to  slavery,  and  the  men  of  the  Revolution  were  unwilling  to  rccogni/e  it. 
except  in  an  indirect  and  roundabout  way,  and  then  only,  as  they  expected,  for  a 
limited  period." 

CHARLES    W.    ELLIOTT. 

In  the  second  volume  of  his  excellent  History  of  New  England,  Mi1. 
Elliott  says : 

"  A  State  is  good  or  bad  exactly  in  the  degree  in  which  it  secures  to  each  and  all 
liberty  to  act  out  their  individual  natures  according  to  the  true  principles  of  human 
ity  and  justice.  Perfect  society  is  complete  individuality,  acting  in  harmony  with 
true  law.  The  love  of  society  is  one  of  the  strongest  instincts  of  man's  nature  ;  it 
is  a  necessity.  A  hermit,  therefore,  is  a  monster,  and  anarchy  impossible.  It  is 
also  true  that  change  and  re-formation  are  a  law  of  nature,  opposed  by  stupidity, 
timidity,  and  selfish  inaction.  It  is  clear,  too,  that  governments  have,  heretofore, 
been  organized  and  upheld  by  the  few  for  their  own  benefit,  and  the  world  has 
had  only  aristocracies  and  class  legislation.  The  Republics  of  Greece  and  Rome 
were  not  republics,  for  they  rested  on  a  writhing  people  held  in  slavery.  No  sucl 
governments  can  or  ought  to  continue  long  in  peace,  for  revolt  is  the  only  remedy 
tor  the  oppressed.  ......  New  England  has  done  much  to  colon:zo  AuJ 


166  TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING-  WITNESSES. 

civilize  the  wide  Western  prairies,  arid  wherever  her  men  and  women  go,  order, 
decency,  industry,  and  education  prevail  over  barbarism  and  violence.  But  she 
has  more  work  to  do  ;  we  may  hope  that  she  will  shake  off  that  old  man  of  the  sea 
who  hangs  upon  her — may  more  fully  learn  that  principle  is  above  profit,  and  a 
sound  heart  is  better  than  a  silver  dollar — that  she  will  lay  her  hand  to  the  building 
up  of  galleries,  and  museums,  and  libraries,  as  well  as  of  mills  and  workshops;  and 
that  she  will  not  fear  to  meet  and  drive  back  the  black  brood  of  slavery  to  its  own 
place,  and  assert,  and  maintain,  and  extend  the  rule  of  Right  over  Might ;  so  that 
in  the  future,  Democracy — the  rights  of  'all — may  everywhere  prevail  over  Aristo 
cracy,  which  secures  the  privileges  of  the  few,  but  perpetuates  the  wrongs  of  the 
many." 

WILLIAM   HENRY   BUELEIGII. 

In  a  volume  of  liis  fugitive  poems,  the  reading  of  which  has  afforded 
us  a  high  degree  of  pleasure,  Mr.  Burleigh  says : 

"  Now,  tyrants !  look  well  to  your  path! 

A  cloud  shall  come  over  your  fame, 
And  the  terrible  storm  of  a  free  people's  wrath, 

Overwhelm  you  with  anguish  and  shame  ! 
To  years  and  to  ages  unborn, 

Throughout  every  kindred  and  clime, 
Ye  shall  be  as  a  by-word,  a  hissing  and  scorn, 

To  the  pure  and  the  good  of  all  time  ! 
The  curse  of  the  slave  and  the  taunt  of  the  free 

Henceforth  and  forever  your  portion  shall  be ! 


"  Thank  God  !  that  a  limit  is  set 

To  the  reach  of  the  tyrant's  control  ! 
That  the  down-trodden  serf  may  not  wholly  forget 

The  right  and  the  might  of  his  soul  ! 
That  though  years  of  oppression  may  dim 

The  fire  on  the  heart's  altar  laid, 
Yet,  lit  by  the  breath  of  Jehovah,  like  Him 

It  lives,  and  shall  live,  undecayed  ! 
Will  the  fires  of  the  mountain  grow  feeble  and  die  ? 

Beware  !  —  for  the  tread  of  the  Earthquake  is  nigh!" 

CTIAKLS3    0.    BUELEIGH. 

On  the  subject  of  "Slavery  and  the  North,"  Mr.  Burleigh  says  : 

"  The  questior  of  slavery  is  imdeniably,  for  this  country  at  least,  the  great  qnes- 
tion  of  the  age.  On  the  right  decision  of  it  depend  interests  too  vast  to  be  fitly 
set  forth  in  word-s.  Here  are  three  millions  of  slaves  in  a  land  calling  itself  free  ; 
three  millions  of  human  beings  robbed  of  every  right,  and,  by  statute  and  custom, 
among  a  people  self-styled  Christian,  held  as  brutes.  Knowledge  is  forbidden,  and 
religious  worship,  if  allowed,  is  clogged  with  fetters  ;  the  sanctity  of  marriage  is 
denied  ;  and  home  and  family  and  all  the  sacred  names  of  kindred,  which  form  the 
dialect  of  domestic  love,  are  made  unmeaning  words.  The  soul  is  crushed,  that  the 
body  may  be  safely  coined  into  dollars.  And  not  occasionally,  by  here  and  there 
a  hardened  villain,  reckless  alike  of  justice,  law,  and  public  sentiment;  fearing  not 
(Jod  nor  regarding  man;  but  on  system,  and  by  the  combined  strength  of  the  whole 
nation.  Most  men  at  the  North,  and  many  even  at  the  South,  admit  that  this  is 
wrong,  all  wrong—  in  morals,  in  policy  every  way  wrong  —  that  it  is  a  gross  injus 
tice  to  the  slave,  a  serious  evil  to  the  master,  a  great  calamity  to  the  country  ;  that 
it  belies  the  nation's  high  professions,  brings  deep  disgrace  upon  its  character,  and 
exposes  it  to  unknown  perils  and  disasters  in  the  time  to  come." 


J.    M1LLEE 

In  his  speech  in  the  City  Assembly  Booms,  New  York,  May  11,  1859 
air.  McKim  said  : 


TESTIMONY   OF   LIVING   WITNESSES.  167 

"W  hat  the  anti-slave  trade  agitation  did  incidentally  for  England, the  anti-slavehold- 
ing  agitation  is  doing  collaterally  for  this  country.  It  is  rectifying  public  sentiment  on 
all  great  questions  of  prerogative  and  duty.  It  is  improving  our  politics,  meliorat 
ing  our  religion,  and  raising  the  standard  of  public  and  social  morals.  The  evidence 

of  this  is  so  palpable,  that  no  one  with  eyes  can  fail  to  see  it la 

religion,  the  change,  though  less  easily  measured,  is  none  the  less  striking.  Eccle 
siastically,  as  well  as  politically,  anti-slavery  has  been  a  benefactor.  It  has  stripped 
hypocrisy  of  its  disguise,  and  divested  priestcraft  of  much  of  its  power  for  evil.  Let 
me  not  be  misunderstood  ;  I  use  this  language  in  no  sectarian  sense.  In  what  I  say 
I  allude  to  mere  professional  clergymen  ;  men  who  live  by  religion  as  demagogues 
do  by  politics  ;  Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic  Tetzels,  who  peddle  Christianity  as  a 

trade,  and  subsist  on  its  profits The  literature  of  the  country  has 

been  revolutionized  by  our  movement.  Anti-slavery  publications  used  to  be  burned 
in  Charleston,  and  drowned  in  Philadelphia.  Paulding  and  Park  Benjamin,  and  the 
like,  held  sway  in  the  republic  of  letters.  Carey  and  Hart  expurgated  Longfellow's 
poems  to  increase  their  profits,  and  Hildreth  and  Whittier  were  only  read  by  such 
as  found  their  way  into  the  anti-slavery  office.  How  changed  is  everything  now. 
The  entire  literature  of  the  country — everything  that  is  worthy  of  the  name — is 
against  slavery.  Pro-slavery  booksellers  grow  rich  on  anti-slavery  novels,  and  pan 
dering  theatrical  managers  put  money  in  their  purses  from  abolition  dramas.  All 
the  best  daily  and  weekly  journals,  and  monthly  and  quarterly  magazines  are  anti- 
slavery." 

WILLIAM   HENET   FUKNESS. 

In  his  "  Derby  Lecture,"  Dr.  Furness,  of  Philadelphia,  says : 

"If  we  possessed  the  good  that  God  hath  showed  us,  were  we  obedient  to  his 
requisitions,  were  we  to  do  justly,  the  fetters  of  the  slave  would  disappear  as  if  con 
sumed  by  fire  before  the  majestic  and  all-commanding  sense  of  justice  expressed  in 
the  action  of  the  free  Northern  heart.  Does  any  one  ask  at  this  late  day,  when  the 
giant  wrong  which  our  country  legalizes  and  fights  for,  threatens  to  strip  us  of  the 
deiu-est  attributes  of  freedom  and  humanity — does  any  one  ask,  what  have  we  to  do 
with  the  injustice  that  exists  not  here  but  in  another  part  of  the  land?  I  answer 
freely,  distinctly,  emphatically,  nothing.  In  simple  justice  we  have  no  right  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  it.  We  have  no  right  to  stand  guard  over  it  as  we  do,  with 
our  unjust  prejudices,  more  fatal  than  muskets  or  artillery.  We  have  no  right  to 
surrender  to  it  the  sacred  principle  of  freedom  of  speech,  as  we  have  done.  We 
have  no  right  to  afford  it  the  broad  protection  of  our  silence,  as  we  do.  We  have 
no  right  to  allow  it  to  flourish  in  the  capital  of  the  nation  as  we  do.  We  have  no 
right  to  aid  in  extending  and  perpetuating  and  fighting  for  it,  as,  may  God  have 
mercy  on  us!  we  have  done,  and  are  doing.  As  we  are  doing  all  these  unjust 
things,  we  are  guilty  of  interfering  most  impertinently  with  things  with  which  we 
have  no  right  to  interfere.  We  must  turn  over  a  new  leaf,  and  learn,  hard  as  the 
lesson  may  be,  to  mind  every  one  his  own  business.  And  what  is  our  business? 
Why,  to  do  justly.  It  is  what  God  specially  requires  of  us,  to  cease  from  doing 
evil ;  to  maintain  freedom  of  speech,  that  precious  thing  without  which  our  civil 
security  is  but  stubble,  which  the  outbursting  fires  of  violent  passions  may  at  any 
moment  consume  ;  to  guard  the  public  liberties  in  the  person  of  the  meanest  of  the 
land;  to  destroy  injustice  of  all  kinds,  and  let  the  voice  of  humanity,  the  swelling 
key-note  of  the  world,  be  heard,  pleading  for  the  right." 

A.    D.    MAYO. 

In  his  new  miscellaneous  work,  "  Symbols  of  the  Capital,"  a  volume 
full  of  vigorous  essays  and  fascinating  delineations  of  life  in  the  Empire 
Btate,  Mr.  Mayo  Bays : 

'•  The  question  of  free  labor  is  not  to  be  argued  so  much  from  its  economical 
results,  though  here  the  argument  is  triumphant,  as  from  its  spiritual  aspects.  Ever} 
true  son  of  Adam  will  maintain  that  the  happiest  word  that  ever  greeted  his  ears  was 
his  command  to  leave-  the  Eden  of  childish  innocence  for  a  wilderness  of  manly  toil. 
Free  industry  is  for  the  elevation  and  education  of  the  race.  All  human  experience 
nas  demonstrated  that  the  only  way  to  greatness  of  any  kind  is  the  straight  and  nar 
row  way  of  labor.  And  when  man  toils,  in  the  exercise  of  his  great  attribute  of 
freedom,  he  is  in  the  way  to  gain  his  chief  distinction.  Creation  is  the  granlest 
attribute  of  man,  the  point  in  Avhich  he  approaches  nearest  his  Maker.  To  create  »>s» 


168  TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES- 

combinations  from  the  material  universe;  by  the  discipline  of  free  industry  to  Jiscover 
the  creative  laws  of  Omnipotence,  and  by  obedience  to  them  to  express  his  best 
conceptions  of  existence  ;  to  impress  himself  on  the  whole  earth,  and  even  fill  the 
invisible  elements  with  the  finer  energy  of  his  victorious  mind  ;  especially  to  create 
in  the  realm  of  spirit ;  molding  human  nature  into  higher  forms  of  individual  and 
social  life,  and  by  a  far-reaching  insight,  peopling  the  realms  of  imagination  with 
new  and  glorious  beings,  which  bear  the  sell  of  reality,  and  become  the  ideals  of 
the  generations.  This  is  God-like,  and  only  through  Free  Labor  can  man  approach 
this  throne  of  his  power,  and  rise  into  the  companionship  of  the  creative  love  of  the 
Father  of  all." 

THOMAS    DAVIS. 

In  the  course  of  one  of  the  best  speeches  ever  made  on  the  Kansas 
question — a  speech  replete  with  irrefutable  facts  and  arguments — the 
delivery  of  which,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  May  9,  185 4-,  at 
once  distinguished  him  in  Congress  and  throughout  the  country,  Mr. 
Davis,  of  Ehode  Island,  said : 

"Th,o  despotism  of  slavery  is  not  standing  on  its  own  basis,  or  defended  by  its 
o*m  power,  force,  or  ingenuity.  It  calls  to  its  aid,  and  insists  upon  the  obligation 
enforced  by  the  doctrine  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  requires  of  the 
general  government  to  protect,  maintain,  and  extend  slavery.  It  is  no  longer  an 
evil  to  be  tolerated  or  endured,  but,  in  the  estimation  of  its  fanatical  advocates,  it 
is  to  be  extended  and  perpetuated. 

"  It  is  maintained  by  the  combine-.!  power  of  monarchy,  as  represented  in  the 
Executive,  wielding  all  the  patronage  of  government  by  directly  rewarding  those 
who  are  subservient  to  its  dictates,  and  proscribing  all  who  dare  to  exercise  with 
open  manliness  the  right  of  American  freemen,  in  condemnation  of  its  rank  injus 
tice. 

"  Next,  we  have  the  slaveowners,  who  are  an  aristocracy  not  elected  by  or  sub 
ject  to  any  higher  power,  but  firmly  united  by  ties  of  common  interest,  ownership, 
and  absolute  control,  amounting  to  a  state  of  perpetual  warfare  where  the  weapons 
are  all  in  the  hands  of  one  partj".  These  combinations  of  power,  monarchy,  and 
oligarchy,  might  be  deemed  ample  for  the  maintenance  of  their  unholy  ascendency  ; 
but,  sir,  it  seems  it  is  not  enough,  fur  we  have  now  a  new  proclamation  in  its 
defence.  It  finds  itself  incapable,  with  the  weapons  it  has  heretofore  wielded,  of 
accomplishing  its  purposes,  and  it  now  demands  that  the  great  and  vital  doctrine 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is  peculiarly  its  own.  Thus  we  have  the  combina 
tion  of  monarchy,  or  the  powers  of  one  man — oligarchy,  or  the  favored  few  ;  and 
democracy,  or  the  powers  of  the  whole  people.  Seizing  upon  this  last  prin 
ciple,  it  profanes  its  holy  name,  using  it  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining  a 
system  destructive  of  all  human  rights;  for  just  in  proportion  as  men  feel  the 


Ing  extent,  destructive  of  the  principles  of  self-government.' 

FEE DE RICK    LAV/    OLMSTED. 

In  his  "Seaboard  Slave  States,"  Mr.  Olmsted,  the  eminently  clever 

and  competent  superintendent  of  the  great  Central  Park,  in  New  York 
city — a  traveller  and  author  of  exquisite  discernment  and  indubitable- 
voracity,  writing  from  Norfolk,  in  Virginia,  says : 

"Incidents,  trilling  in  themselves,  constantly  betray  to  a  stranger  the  ba:: 
economy  of  using  enslaved  servants.  Tho  catastrophe  of  one  such  occurred  since 
I  began  to  write  this  letter.  1  ordered  a  lire  to  ba  made  in  my  room,  as  I  was 
going  out  this  morning.  On  my  return,  I  found  a  grand  fire— the  room  door  hav 
ing  been  closed  and  locked  upon  it,  and,  by  the  way.  I  had  to  obtain  assistance  to 
open  it,  the  lock  being  '  out  of  order.'  Just  now,  while  I  was  writin°-,  down 
tumbled  upon  the  floor,  and  rolled  away  close  to  the  valance  of  the  bed,  half  a 
tod-full  of  ignited  coal,  which  had  been  so  piled  up  on  the  diminutive  grate,  and 
eft  without  a  fender  or  any  guard,  that  vhis  result  was  almost  inevitable.  If  I  had 


TESTIMONY   OF  LIVING   WITNESSES.  169 

not  returned  at  the  time  1  did,  the  house  would  have  been  fired,  and  probably  an 
incendiary  charged  with  it,  while  some  Northern  Insurance  Company  made  good  the 
loss  to  the  owner.  ....  Such  carelessness  on  the  part  of  these  enslaved  servants 
you  have  momentarily  to  notice.  The  constantly-occurring  delays,  and  the  waste 
of  time  and  labor  that  you  encounter  everywhere,  are  most  annoying  and  provok 
ing.  The  utter  want  of  system  and  order,  almost  essential,  as  it  would  appear, 
whe,re  slaves  are  your  instruments,  is  amazing.  At  a  hotel,  for  instance,  you  go  to 
your  room  and  find  no  conveniences  for  Avashing ;  ring  and  ring  again,  and  hear 
the  office-keeper  ring  and  ring  again.  At  length  two  servants  appear  together  at 
at  your  door,  get  orders,  and  go  away.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  afterward,  perhaps, 

one  returns  with  a  pitcher  of  water,  but  no  towels;  and  so  on It 

is  impossible  that  the  habits  of  the  whole  community  should  not  be  influenced 
by,  and  be  made  to  accommodate  to  these  habits  of  its  laborers.  It  irresistibly 
affects  the  whole  industrial  character  of  the  people.  You  may  see  it  in  the  habits 
and  manners  of  the  free  white  mechanics  and  tradespeople.  All  of  these  must  have 
dealings  or  be  in  competition  with  slaves,  and  so  have  their  standard  of  excellence 
made  low,  and  become  accustomed  to,  until  they  arc  content  with,  slight,  false,  un 
sound  workmanship." 

THEODORE   D.    WELD. 

Wielding  a  vigorous  pen  in  behalf  of  a  noble  cause,  the  Pestalozzi  of 
our  country,  Mr.  Weld,  founder  and  present  principal  of  the  famous 
eclectic  school  at  Eagleswood,  ISTew  Jersey,  says : 

"  There  is  not  a  man  on  earth  who  does  not  believe  that  slavery  is  a  curse. 
Human  beings  may  be  inconsistent,  but  human  nature  is  true  to  herself.  She  has 
uttered  her  testimony  against  slavery  with  a  shriek  ever  since  the  monster  was 
begotten;  and  till  it  perishes  amidst  the  execrations  of  the  universe,  she  Avill 
traverse  the  world  on  its  track,  dealing  her  bolts  upon  its  head,  and  dashing 
against  it  her  condemning  brand.  We  repeat  it,  every  man  knows  that  slavery  is 
a  curse,  Whoever  denies  this,  his  lips  libel  his  heart.  Try  him:  clank  the  chains 
in  liis  ears,  and  tell  him  they  are  for  him  :  give  him  an  hour  to  prepare  his  wife  and 
children  for  a  life  of  slavery ;  bid  him  make  haste  and  get  ready  their  necks  for 
the  yoke,  and  their  wrists  for  the  coftie-chains,  then  look  at  his  pale  lips  and  trem 
bling  knees,  and  you  have  Nature's  testimony  against  slavery." 

Thus,  in  the  six  last  chapters  inclusive,  have  we  introduced  a  mass  of 
anti-slavery  arguments,  human  and  divine,  that  will  stand,  irrefutable 
and  convincing,  as  long  as  the  earth  itself  shall  continue  to  revolve  in 
its  orbit.  Aside  from  unaffected  truthfulness  and  candor,  no  merit  is 
claimed  for  anything  we  have  said  on  our  own  account.  With  the  best 
of  motives,  and  in  the  language  of  nature  more  than  that  of  art,  we  have 
given  utterance  to  the  honest  convictions  of  our  heart — being  impelled 
to  it  by  a  long-harbored  and  unmistakable  sense  of  duty  which  grew 
stronger  and  deeper  as  the  days  passed  away. 

If  half  the  time  which  has  been  spent  in  collecting  and  arranging 
these  testimonies  had  been  occupied  in  the  composition  of  original  mat 
ter,  (he  weight  of  paper  and  binding  and  the  number  of  pages  would 
have  been  much  greater  ;  but  the  value  and  effect  of  the  contents  would 
have  been  far  less.  From  the  first,  our  leading  motive  has  been  to  con 
vince  our  fellow-citizens  of  the  South,  non-slaveholders  and  slaveholders, 
that  slavery,  whether  considered  in  all  its  bearings,  or,  setting  aside  the 
moral  aspect  of  the  question,  and  looking  at  it  only  in  a  pecuniary  point 
ot  view,  is  impolitic,  unprofitable,  and  degrading  ;  how  well,  thus  for, 
we  have  mcceeded  in  our  undertaking,  time  will,  perhaps,  fully  disclose. 


170  TESTIMONY    OF   LIVING   WITNESSES. 

In  the  words  of  a  contemporaneous  German  writer,  .whose  language 
we  readily  and  heartily  indorse,  "  It  is  the  shame  of  our  age  that 
argument  is  needed  against  shivery."  Taking  things  as  they  are,  how 
ever,  argument  being  needed,  we  have  ottered  it;  and  we  have  offered 
it  from  such  sources  as  will,  in  our  honest  opinion,  confound  the  devil  and 
liis  incarnate  confederates. 

These  testimonies,  culled  from  the  accumulated  wisdom  of  nearly 
sixty  centuries,  beginning  with  the  great  and  good  men  of  our  OAVH 
time,  and  running  back  through  distant  ages  to  Saint  Paul,  Saint  John, 
and  Saint  Luke;  to  Cicero,  Plato,  and  Socrates,  to  Solomon,  David,  and 
Moses,  and  even  to  the  Deity  himself,  are  the  pillars  of  strength  and 
beauty  upon  which  the  popularity  of  our  work  will,  in  all  probability, 
be  principally  based.  If  the  ablest  writers  of  the  Old  Testament ;  if 
the  eloquent  prophets  of  old  ;  if  the  renowned  philosophers  of  Greece 
and  Rome  ;  if  the  heavenly  minded  authors  and  compilers  of  the  New 
Testament ;  if  the  illustrious  poets  and  prose-writers,  heroes,  statesmen, 
sages  of  all  nations,  ancient  and  modern;  if  God  himself  and  the  hosts 
of  learned  ministers  whom  he  has  commissioned  to  proclaim  his 
word — if  all  these  are  wrong,  then  we  are  wrong  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
however,  if  they  are  right,  we  are  right;  for,  in  effect,  we  only  repeat 
and  endeavor  to  enforce  their  precepts. 

If  we  are  in  error,  we  desire  to  be  corrected  ;  ana,  if  it  is  not  asking 
too  much,  we  respectfully  request  the  advocates  of  shivery  to  favor  us 
with  an  expose,  of  what  thoy.  in  their  one-sided  view  of  things,  conceive 
to  be  the  advantages  of  thoir  favorite  and  peculiar  institution.  Such 
an  expose,  if  skillfully  executed,  wouM  doubtless  be  regarded  as  the 
funniest  novel  of  the  t'.mes — a  fit  production,  if  noi  tco  immoral  in  its 
tendencies,  to  be  incorporated  into  the  nezt  edition  of  Disraeli's 
Curiosities  of  Literature. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FREE  FIGURES  AND  SLAVE. 

God  fix'd  it  certain,  that,  whatever  day 
Makes  man  a  slave,  takes  half  his  worth  away. 

POPE'S  HOHEB. 

UNDER  this  heading  we  propose  to  introduce  the  remainder  of  th« 
more  important  statistics  of  the  Free  and  of  the  Slave  States ; — especially 
those  that  relate  to  Commerce,  Manufactures,  Internal  Improvements, 
Education  and  Religion.  Originally  "it  was  our  intention  to  devote  a 
separate  chapter  to  each  of  the  industrial  and  moral  interests  above 
named ;  but  other  considerations  have  so  greatly  encroached  on  OUT 
space,  that  we  are  compelled  to  modify  our  design.  To  the  thoughtful 
and  discriminating  reader,  however,  the  chief  statistics  which  follow 
will  be  none  the  less  interesting  for  not  being  the  subjects  of  annotation. 

At  present,  all  we  ask  of  the  pro-slavery  men,  no  matter  in  what  part 
of  the  world  they  may  reside,  is  to  look  these  figures  fairly  in  the  face. 
We  wish  them  to  do  it,  in  the  first  instance,  not  on  the  platforms  of 
public  debate,  where  the  exercise  of  eloquence  is  too  often  characterized 
by  violent  passion  and  subterfuge,  but  in  their  own  private  apartments, 
where  no  eye  save  that  of  the  All-seeing  One  will  rest  upon  them,  and 
where,  in  considering  the  relations  which  they  sustain  to  the  past,  the 
present,  and  the  future,  an  opportunity  will  be  afforded  them  of  securing 
that  most  valuable  of  all  possessions  attainable  on  earth,  a  conscience 
void  of  offence  toward  God  and  man. 

Each  separate  table  or  particular  compilation  of  statistics  will  afford 
food  for  at  least  an  hour's  profitable  reflection  ;  indeed,  the  more  these 
figures  are  studied,  and  the  better  they  are  understood,  the  sooner  will 
the  author's  object  be  accomplished — the  sooner  will  the  genius  of  Uni 
versal  Liberty  dispel  the  dark  clouds  of  slavery. 

in 


172 


FREE   FIGURES    AtfD   SLATE, 


13. 

TONNAGE,  EXPORTS   AND  IMPORTS  OF  THE  FREE  AND  OF  THE  SLAYS 
STATES— 1855. 


Freo 
States. 

Tonnage. 

Exports. 

Imports. 

Siiwe 

States. 

Tonnage. 

Exports. 

Imports. 

Cal  
Conn.... 

Illinois. 
Indiana 
Iowa... 
Maine.. 
Mass... 
Mich... 
N.  H.   . 

92,623 
1:37,170 
53,797 
3,693 

806,587 
970,727 
69,490 
30,330 

$8,224,066 
878,874 
547,053 

4,851,207 
23.190,925 
568,091 
1,523 

$5,5)51,379 
686,826 

54,509 

2,927,443 
45,113,774 
281,379 

17,786 

Ala.  .  .  . 
Ark.  .  .  . 
Del.  ... 
Florida. 
I  Georgia 

£:::: 

Md  

Miss.... 

88,274 

19,186 
14,835 
29,505 
22,080 
204,143 
2-34,805 
2,475 

$14,270,585 

68,087 
1,403,594 
7,543,519 

55,367,962 
10,395,984 

$619,964 

5,821 

45,903 
273.7  1  6 

12,900,821 
7,788,949 
1,661 

N.  J.... 
N.Y.  .. 
Ohio... 
Penn.  .  . 
R.  I.  ... 
Yt,  
•\Vis.  .  .  . 

121,020 
1,404,221 
91,007 
397,768 
51,033 
6,915 
15,624 

687 
113,731,233 
847,143 
6,274,333 
33(5,023 
2,895,463 
174,057 

1,473 
164,776,511 
600,656 
15,800,935 
536,387 
591,598 
48,159 

Mo  

N.  C.  .  . 

s.  c.  .  .  . 

Tenn... 
Texas  .  . 
Va  .  .  .  . 

60,592 
60,077 
60,935 
8,404 
8,812 
92,788 

433,813 
12,700,250 

916,961 
4,379,928 

243,083 

1,588,542 

262,563 
855,405 

4,252,615 

$167,520,693 

$236,847,810 

855,517 

$107,480,688 

$24,586,528 

PRODUCT   OF  MANUFACTURES  IN  THE    FREE  AND  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES— 1850 


Free 

States. 

Value  of  An-        Capital 
nual  piodue.s.l      invesied. 

Hands 

empPed 

Slave 
Stales. 

Value  of  An 
nual  producis. 

Capital 
invested. 

Hands 
empl'ea. 

California 

$12,862,522  !    $1,006,197 

3,964 

Alabama 

$4,538,878 

$8,450,606 

4,936 

Conn.  .  .  . 

45,110,102  ;     23,890,348 

47,770 

Arkansas 

007,436 

324  065 

903 

Illinois... 

17,23(5,073         6,335,387 

12,065 

Delaware 

4,649,296 

2,978,945 

8,383 

Indiana.. 

18,922,651  !       7,941,602 

14,342 

Florida.. 

6(58,333 

547,060 

991 

Ion-si  

3,551,733        1,292,875 

1,707 

Georgia.. 

7,OS  6,525 

5,460,4^3 

8,378 

Maine.  .  .  . 

24,6(54,135  i     14,700,452 

28,078 

Kentucky 

24,588,-)  S3 

12,350,734 

24,335 

Mass  

151,137,145       83,357.642 

165,933 

Louisiana 

7,320,943 

5.313,074 

6,437 

Michigan. 

10,976,394  :       6,534,250 

9,290 

Maryland 

3?,477,702 

14,753,143 

80,12-1 

-\.  Hamp. 

23,164,503  ,     18,242,114 

27,1192 

Miss  

2,972,033 

1,833,420 

3,173 

N.  Jersey 
New  York 

39,713,586      22,184,730 
237,597,249  i     99,904,405 

37,311 
199,349 

Missouri. 
N.  C  

23,749,265 
9,111,245 

9,079,695 

7,252,225 

1E.S50 
12,444 

Ohio... 

62,647,259  1     29,01  !),5'JS 

51,489 

S.  C  

7,063,513 

6,05(>,S(55 

7,00 

Penn  

155,044,910       94,473,310 

146,766 

Tenn.  .  .  . 

9,723,433 

6,975,279 

12,03 

Rhode  Is. 

22,093,253       12,923,176 

20,331 

Texas..  . 

1,1(55,533 

539,290 

1  ,06 

Vermont. 
Wisconsin 

«,570,920         5,001,377 
9,293,0(53  :       3,332,143 

8,445 
6,039 

Virginia  . 

29,705,337 

13,109,993 

29,109 

$842,536,058  $430,240,051 

i 

780,576 

$165,413,027 

$95,029,879 

161,733 

FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE. 


173 


X-A.B  IL, 


15. 


MILES  OF  CANALS  AND   RAILROADS  IN  THE  FREE  AND  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES, 

1S5-1-1S57. 


Free 
States. 

Canals, 
miles,  1854. 

Railroads, 
miles,  1857. 

Cost  of  Rail 
roads,  1855. 

Slave  Slates. 

Canals, 
miles,  1854. 

Railroads, 
miles,  1857- 

Cost  of  Rail 
roads,  1655. 

California 
Conn  
Illinois... 
Indiana.  . 
Iowa  

'"61 
100 

367 

22 
600 
2,524 
1,806 
253 
442 
1,285 
600 
645 
472 
2,700 
2,869 
2,407 
85 
515 
629 

$25,224,191 
55,663,056 
29,585,923 
2,300,000 
13,749,021 
59,167,781 
22,370,397 
15,800,949 
13,840,030 
111,882,503 
67,79S,202 
94,057,075 
2,614,484 
17,998,835 
5,600,000 

Alabama  . 
Arkansas.. 
Delaware. 
Florida 

51 
14 

484 

120 
8G 
1,062 
306 
263 
597 
410 
189 
612 
706 
508 
57 
1,479 

$3,986,203 

000,000 
250,000 
17,<m,S!>2 
6,179,072 
1,731,000 
12,651.333 
4,5-20,000 
1,000,000 
6,H47,'J13 
13,547,093 
10,436,610 
16,466,250 

Georgia  .  . 
Kentucky.. 
Louisiana.. 
Maryland.. 
Mississippi. 
Missouri.  .. 

23 
4S6 
101 
134 

Maine  .  .  . 
Mass  

Michigan. 
N.  llamp. 
N.  Jersey 
New  York 
Ohio  
Penn  
Rhode  Is. 
Vermont.. 
Wisconsin 

50 
100 

'"ii 

147 
989 
921 
936 

N.Carolina 
S.  Carolina 
Tennessee. 

13 
50 

Virginia  .  .  . 

. 

189 
1,116 

3,682 

17,855 

$538,313,647 

6,859 

$95,252,581 

T  ^.33  L  E       16. 
BANK  CAPITAL  IN  THE  lilEE  AND  IN   THE  SLAVE  STATES— 1855. 


Free  States. 

Bank  capital. 

Slave  States. 

Bank  capital. 

$2  996  400 

$15  597  891 

Illinois      

2*5is'790     ! 

1  393  175 

7  281  934     1 

Iowa  

Georgia  . 

13  413  109 

Maine  

7  301  252 

10  309  7  1  7 

Massachusetts  

51,492,660 

Louisiana  

20  179  107 

Michigan  

980  416 

Maryland  

10  41  1  874 

New  Hampshire  

3  626  000 

240  165 

5  314  8S5 

1  2  1  o  3')S 

New  York 

83  773  983     ; 

North  Carolina 

5  905  073 

Ohio  .  .  '.  

7  166  581 

South  Carolina  

16  603  '253 

Pennsylvania  

19  804  825 

Tennessee  .         .             .... 

6  717  843 

Rhode  Island 

17  511,162 

Texas 

3  275  656 

Virginia 

140S383S 

1  400  000 

Total 

$280  100  340 

Total 

$102,078,949 

174 


FKEE   FIGUEES    AOT   SLAVE. 


T^.  IB  21,  E      17 

MILI1IA  FORCE  OP  THE  FREE  AND  OF  THE  SLAVE  STATES— 185ft 


Free  States. 

Militia  force. 

.Slave  States. 

Miliiia  force. 

California 

Alabama 

7C  CGv! 

51  G49 

17  137 

Illinois  

170  359 

Delaware  

9  '>°9 

53  918 

Florida       

12*122 

57  31° 

G2  588 

81  810 

Massachusetts  

liu'cgo 

Louisiana    

43  823 

C3  933 

Maryland  .  . 

46  804 

32  151 

3G  OS4 

New  J  ersey  

39  171 

Missouri  

61  000 

New  York    

2C5  293 

North  Carolina  

79  443 

Ohio 

170  455 

South  C;>  rolina    .. 

f>5  '''O'? 

27(5  (i70 

71  ''&••* 

llhode  Island  

14  443 

Texas  

19  766 

Vermont  

23  915 

Virginia  

125  l°b 

Wisconsin 

32  203 

Total 

1,381,843 

Total 

792  S7G 

T  J^  IB  JL.  EJ       18. 
POST-OFFICE  OPERATIONS  IN  THE  FREE  AND  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES— 1855. 


Free  States. 

Stamps  sold. 

Total 
Postage 
collected. 

Cost  of 
Transport'!? 
the  mails. 

Slave  States. 

Stamps  sold. 

Total 
Postage 

collected. 

Cost  of 
Transport  'g 

the  mails. 

California.  . 

$81,437 

$234,591 

$135,386 

Alabama 

$44,514 

$104,514 

$226,816 

Connecticut 

79,284 

179,230 

81,462 

Arkansas 

8,941 

30,664 

117,659 

Illinois  ... 

105.252 

279,SS7 

280,038 

Delaware 

7,298 

19,644 

9,243 

Indiana.  ... 

G0578 

180,405 

190,480 

Florida  . 

8,764 

19,275 

77,553 

Iowa  

28,198 

82,420 

84,428 

Georgia.  . 

73,SSO 

149,063 

216,003 

Maine  

60,1(55 

151,358 

82,218 

Kentucky 

55,694 

130,067 

144,161 

Mass  

259,062 

532,184 

153,091 

Louisiana 

50,778 

183,753 

133,810 

Michigan  .  . 

49,763 

142,188 

148,204 

Maryland 

77,743 

191,485 

192,743 

New  Hamp. 

38,387 

95,609 

46,631 

Miss  

81,182 

78,739 

170,785 

New  Jersey 

81,495 

109,697 

80,084 

Missouri. 

53,742 

139,  G52 

1,85,096 

New  York.. 

542,498 

1.383,157 

481,410 

N.  C  

34,235 

72,759 

148,249 

Ohio  

167,958 

452,643 

421,870 

S.  C.    ... 

47,303 

91,600 

192,216 

Penn  

217,293 

583,013 

251,833 

Tenn.  .  .  . 

48,377 

103,686 

116,001 

Rhode  la,.  . 

30,291 

58,624 

13,891 

Texas..  . 

24,530 

70.436 

200,936 

Vermont.  .  . 

36,314 

92,816 

64,437 

Virginia  . 

96,799 

217,861 

245,592 

Wisconsin  . 

33,538 

112,903 

92,842 

$1,719,513 

$4,670,725 

$2,603,295 

$606,845 

$1,553,198 

$2,385,953 

FREE   FIGURES    AND   SLAVE. 


175 


rP  .A.  33  L  E      19. 
PUBLIC   SCHOOLS   OF   THE   FREE    AND   OP   THE  SLAVE   STATES— 1850. 


Free 
Siaios. 

Number. 

Teachers. 

Tupils. 

Slave  States. 

Number. 

Teachers. 

Pupils. 

iiifornia 

2 

2 

49 

Alabama 

1,152 

1,195 

23,380 

inn 

1,650 

1,787 

71,269 

Arkansas 

353 

855 

8,493 

iiiois..  . 

4,052 

4,243 

125,725 

Delaware 

194 

214 

8,970 

di;uia.. 

4,822 

4,S60 

101,500 

Florida.. 

69 

73 

1,87S 

\v  a   .... 

740 

823 

21)  .556 

Georgia.. 

1,251 

1,205 

32,705 

line  

4,042 

5,540 

192,815 

Kentucky 

2,234 

2,306 

71,429 

ass  

3,079 

4,443 

170,475 

Louisiana 

604 

822 

25,046 

cliiijan. 

2,714 

3,231 

110.455 

Maryland 

893 

986 

33,111 

Hamp.. 

2,3S1 

3,013 

75,043 

Mississippi 

782 

826 

18,748 

Jersey. 

1,473 

1,574 

77,980 

Missouri.. 

1,570 

1,620 

51,754 

MV  York 

11,530 

13,9(55 

675,221 

N.  C.  .  . 

2,657 

2,730 

104,095 

io  

11,061 

12  836 

4S4  153 

s.  c  

724 

739 

17,833 

nn  

9,001 

10,024 

413,706 

Tennessee 

2.680 

2,819 

104,117 

ode  Is.. 

416 

518 

23,130 

Texas  

'349 

360 

7,946 

rniont  . 

2,731 

4,173 

93,457 

Virginia.. 

2,930 

2,997 

G7,3fJ] 

sconsin 

1,423 

1,529 

58,817 

02,433 

72,621 

2,769,901 

18,507 

19,307 

581,861 

IL,  E5      20. 

LIBRARIES   OTHER   THAN   PRIVATE   IN  THE   FREE   AND   IN   THE   SI-AYB 

STATES-1S50. 


Free  States. 

Number. 

Volumes. 

Slavs  Slates. 

Number. 

Voli'tnes. 

California 

56 

20  003 

Connecticut  
Illinois  

164 
152 

165,313 
62  486 

Arkansas  
Delaware  

3 

17 

420 
17  M50 

151 

63  403 

Florida 

7 

2  000 

32 

5  790 

33 

SI  7S3 

Maine    
Massachusetts 

230 
1,402 

121,969 
684  015 

Kentucky  
Louisiana  .... 

80 
10 

79,466 
26  SOO 

417 

107  943 

124 

1°5  042 

N.  Hampshire  
New  Jersey  

'     129 
123 

85,759 

80,885 

Mississippi  
Missouri  

117 

97 

21,737 
75  05(5 

New  York  
Ohio  
Pennsylvania  
Rhode  Island 

11,018 

352 
393 
96 

1,760,820 
186,826 
363,400 
104  34'> 

North  Carolina.. 
South  Carolina  .  . 
Tennessee  
Texas 

88 
26 
34 
12 

2!)  592 
107,472 
22,896 
4  230 

Vermont  .-. 

90 

64,641 

Virginia  

54 

68,462 

Wisconsin  

72 

21,02C 

14,911 

8,888,234 

695 

649,571 

FREE    FIGUEES    AND    SLAVE. 


IB  H,  ES      SI. 


NEWSPAPERS   AND   PERIODICALS   PUBLISHED   IN   THE   FREE   AND    IN    THE 

SLAVE   STATES—  1S50. 


Free  States. 

Number. 

Copies  printed 
annually,     j 

Slave  States. 

Number. 

Copies  prii:tsJ 

anis  liilly. 

California  

7 

7C1  200  ''• 

Alabama  

CO 

2,662  741 

Connecticut  
Illinois  
Indiana  

46 
107 
107 

4,267,982 
5,10-2,276 
4316  828 

Arkansas  
Delaware  
Florida  

9 
10 
10 

377,000 
421,200 

319,800 

Iowa  

29 

1  512  800 

Georgia.  

51 

4,070,  S63 

Maine  
Massachusetts  .... 
Michigan  
New  Hampshire  .. 
New  Jersey  
New  York.  

49 
202 
53 
33 
51 
423 

4,203,004 
64,820,564 
3,247,736 
3,067,552 
4,098.078 
115,885,478 

Kentucky  
Louisiana  
Maryland  
Mississippi  
Missouri  
North  Carolina 

02 

68 
50 
61 
51 

0.  82.S33 
12,  16,224 
I'ji  12,724 
1,  52.504 
6.195,560 
2  r'i)  564 

Ohio  
Pennsylvania  
Rhode  Island  ..  . 

261 
309 
19 

311,473,407 
84,898,672 

'>  756  950 

South  Carolina  .  . 
Tennessee  

46 
50 
34 

7,145,!)«0 
6,940.750 
1  296  924 

35 

2  567  662 

87 

9  '•"'3  068 

Wisconsin  

4(5 

2,665',487  ; 

1,790 

334,146,231 

704 

81,038,698 

T  -A.  IB  Hi  IE      22. 

ILLITERATE   WHITE  ADULTS   IN   THE   FREE  AND    IN    THE   SLAVE   STATES— 1850. 


Free  States. 

Native. 

Foreign. 

Total. 

Slave  States 

j 

Native. 

Foreign. 

Total. 

California 

2.201  * 

2,917 

5,118 

Alabama 

33,618 

139 

£3,757 

Conn.   ... 

826 

4,013 

4,739 

j  Arkansas 

16,792 

27 

16,819 

I.Uinois... 

34,107 

5,947 

40,054 

j  Delaware 

4,132 

404 

4,536 

Indiana.  . 

67,275 

3,265 

70,540 

j  Florida  .  . 

3,564 

295 

3,859 

Iowa  

7,043 

1,077 

8,120 

j  Georgia.. 

40,794 

406 

41,200 

Maine  ... 

1,999 

4,148 

6,147 

1  Kentucky 

64,340 

2,347 

66,687 

Mass  

1,055 

26,484 

27,539 

i  Louisiana 

14,950 

6,271 

21,221 

Michigan. 

4,903 

3,009 

7,912 

Maryland 

17,364 

3,451 

20,815 

N.  Hamp. 
N.  Jersey. 

893 
8,370 

2,064 

5,878 

2,957 
14,248 

i  Mississippi 
Missouri.. 

13,324 
34,420 

81 
1,861 

13,405 
36,281 

New  York 

23,241 

68,052 

91,293 

!  N.C  

73,226 

340 

73,566 

Ohio  

51,968 

9,062 

61,030 

|  S.  C  

15,580 

104 

15,684 

Penn  

41,944 

24,989 

66,928 

Tennessee 

77,017 

505 

77  522 

Rhode  Is.. 

981            2,359 

3,340 

I  Texas  

8,037 

2,488 

1(\525 

Vermont.  . 

565  !         5,624 

6.  189 

j  Virginia.. 

75,568 

1,137 

77,005 

Wisconsin 

1,459            4,902 

6|861 

248,725 

173,790 

422,515 

493,026 

19,856 

512,882 

-m 

FREE    FIGURES    \XD    SLAVE. 


177 


T  -A. 


3  a. 


NATIONAL   POLITICAL  POWER   OF   THE  FREE   AND   OF   THE   SLAVE   STATES— 

1S59. 


Free  States. 

Senators. 

Reps,  in 
lowerll. 
of  Coug. 

Electoral 
votes. 

Slave  States. 

Senators. 

Reps,  in 
lower  II. 
of  Cong. 

Electoral 
votes. 

California  

2 

2 

4 

Alabama  

2 

7 

9 

Connecticut  
Illinois  
Indiana  

2 
2 
2 

2 

4 
9 
11 

2 

6 

11 
13 
4 

Arkansas  .  . 
Delaware     .  .  . 
Florida  

2 
2 
2 
2 

2 
1 
1 

g 

4 
3 
3 

10 

Maine  
Massachusetts.. 
Michigan  
Minnesota  
New  Hampshire 
Nexv  Jersey  
New  York 

2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 

6 
11 
4 
2 
3 
5 
33 

8 
13 
6 
4 
5 

35 

Kentucky  .... 
Louisiana  
Maryland  
Mississippi  
Missouri  
N.  Carolina..  . 
S  Carolina 

2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 

10 
4 
G 
5 
7 
8 
g 

12 
6 
8 
7 
9 
10 
g 

Ohio 

2 

21 

23 

2 

10 

12 

Pennsylvania  .  . 
Rhode  Island... 
Vermont  
Wisconsin  

2 
2 
2 
2 

25 
2 
8 
8 

27 
4 
5 
5 

Texas  
Virginia  

2 
2 

2 
13 

4 
15 

34 

146 

180 

30 

90 

120 

POPULAR  VOTE  FOR  PRESIDENT  BY  THE  FREE  AND  BY  THE  SLAVE  STATES-* 

1356. 


Free 
States. 

Rrp- 

Fremont. 

A  mer. 
Fillmore. 

Tlf.m. 
Buchanan. 

Total. 

Slave 
1   States. 

Rep. 
Fieiu. 

Amor. 

Fillmoi-e. 

Dftn. 
Biich'i). 

Total. 

1 

Cal.... 

20  339 

35,113 

51,925 

107,377 

Ala.... 

28,552 

46,739 

75.291 

Conn.. 

42,718 

2,615 

84,9'.lr> 

80,325 

Ark.  . 

10,787 

21,910 

32,097 

Illinois 

96,189 

37,444 

106,348 

238,981 

Del.... 

SOS 

6,175 

8,004 

14,487 

Ind.  .. 

94,375 

22,386 

118,670 

235431 

Florida 

4,833 

0,358 

11,191 

Iowa.. 

48,954 

9,180 

86.170 

89,304 

Ga.... 

42,228 

56,578 

98,806 

Maine. 

67,379 

3,825 

39,080 

109,784 

Ky.... 

314 

67,416 

74,642 

1-12.372 

M  ass.  . 

108,190 

19,626 

89,240 

167,056 

La.  .  .  . 

20,709 

22,164 

42,S73 

Mich.. 

71,762 

1,660 

52,136 

125,558 

Md.... 

281 

47,460 

39,115 

8C..856 

N.  H... 

38,8-15 

422 

82,789 

71,556 

Miss... 

24,195 

35,446 

59,641 

N.  J... 

28,883 

24,115 

46,943 

99,3<>6 

;  Mo.... 

48,524 

5S,1<54 

106,683 

N.  Y.... 

276.907 

124,(104 

195,878 

597,8*1) 

N.  C... 

36,SS6 

48,240 

85,132 

Ohio.. 

187,497 

2s,  126 

170,874 

886,497 

S.  C.*. 

I'eim.  . 

147,510 

82,175 

230,710 

460,395 

Tenn.  . 

€6,178 

73,638 

139,816 

11.  1-  .  . 

11,407 

1,675 

6,580 

19,722 

Texas. 

15,244 

28,757 

4-4,001 

Vt  

80,561 

545 

10,569 

50,675 

Va.... 

291 

60,278 

89,826 

150,395 

Wis.  .  . 

06,090 

679 

52,843 

119,512 

1,840,618  |    893,590 

1,224,750 

2,958,958 

'l,194 

479,465 

eoi.ssT 

MJ90~*Ti 

1 

I 

No  popular 

8* 


178 


FKEE   FIGUEE3   AND    SLAVE. 


T.A.  B  L  IE      35. 
VALUE   OP   CHURCHES   IN    THE   FREE   AND   IN    THE   SLAVE   STATES— 1S50. 


Free  States. 

Value. 

Slave  States. 

Value. 

Cal'fornii 

$9^8  400 

$1  944  741 

3  599*330 

14S)  GS!i 

1  532*805 

34!)  845 

Indiana 

Florida                                 .... 

!')•>  (JHO 

Io\va                            

235  4  1  2 

1,827,112 

Maine 

1  794  '<>09 

Kentucky       

2  'J!)3  =553 

10  504  S^S 

1  040  4'.)3 

793*180 

3  (I74  1  10 

v  C.-  n-     "  -i  """•           ' 

1  433  "06 

8:5"  6'<"2 

3  71°  S(>3 

1,730,135 

21  f>39  5til 

North  Carolina  .           ... 

907  785 

Ohio                           

5  Sl>()  059 

South  Carolina  

2,lSl,47l> 

1  1  853  2'J  I 

Tennessee  

l,'24t),9")l 

Rhode  Island  

I,2;>3,t5(>() 

Texas  

408,944 

Vermont  

1,251,655 

512  552 

"\  irginia  

2,902,220 

Total 

$67  77-^  477 

Total     

$21,C74,5S1 

5  H,  E      30. 

PATENTS  ISSUED   ON   NEW   INVENTIONS   IN   THE   FREE   AND   IN   THE   SLAVE 
STATES -1S56. 


Free  States. 

Talents. 

Slave  States. 

Patents. 

California    

13 

Alabama    .  .             ... 

11 

142 

Illinois 

93 

g 

Indiana 

67 

Florida 

3 

Iowa    

14 

Georgia 

18 

Maine  

42 

Kentucky    

2G 

Massachusetts  

831 

22 

Louisiana  

80 

49 

New  Hampshire  

43 

8 

New  Jersey  

7S 

82 

New  York.                   

593 

9 

Ohio 

139 

10 

Pennsylvania  

2(57 

Tennessee 

23 

Rhode  Island  

IS 

Texas 

4 

Vermont  

85 

42 

Wisconsin  

33 

Total 

1  929 

Total 

263 

FREE   FIGURES    AND    SLAVE. 


179 


J3  JJ 


37. 


BIBLE  CAUgE   AND   TRACT   CAUSE   IN   THE   FREE   AND   IN   THE   SLAVE 
STATES—  1855. 


Free  States. 

Contributions 
for  the 
Bible  Cause. 

Contributions 
tor  the 

Tract  Cause. 

Slave  States. 

Contributions 
for  the 
Bible  Cause. 

Contributions 
for  the 
Tract  Cause. 

California  

$1  900 

$          5 

Alabama  

13,351 

$477 

Connecticut  .. 

24  5f>8 

15,872 

Arkansas  

2,950 

110 

Illinois 

23  403 

37S6 

Delaware  .. 

1  037 

163 

Indiana  

6  755 

1,491 

Florida  

1,957 

5 

Iowa   

4,21(5 

2,005 

Georgia  

4,532 

1,463 

Maine  

Massachusetts 

.5,449 
43  444 

2,931 
11  492 

Kentucky  .    
Louisiana 

5,956 
1  S10 

1,366 
1  099 

Michigan  

5,554 

1,114 

Maryland  

8,909 

5,365 

New  Hampshire  .. 

C271 

1,888 

Mississippi  

1,067 

267 

New  Jersey 

15  475 

8  546 

Missouri  

4,711 

936 

New  York  
Ohio  

123.3S6 
25,755 
25  360 

61,233 
9,57G 
12  l°l 

N.  Carolina  
S.  Carolina  

6,197 
8,984 

8  3S3 

1,419 
3,222 
1  Sl)7 

Rhode  Island.      .. 

2  069 

2,121 

Texas  

8,9S5 

127 

5709 

2867 

Virginia    

9,296 

6,894 

Wisconsin  

4,790 

474 

$319,607 

$131,972 

$68,125 

$24,725 

Hi  ID     29. 

MISSIONARY   CAUSE   AND   COLONIZATION*   CAUSE  IN  THE   FREE   AND   IN    TUB 
SLAVE   STATES-1S55-1856. 


Free  States. 

Contributions 
for  Missionary 
purposes,  1S55. 

Contributions 
for  Colonization 
purposes,  1856. 

Slave  States. 

Contributions 
foi-  Missionary 
purposes,  ISjo. 

Contributions 
for  Colonisation 

purposes,  1S5G. 

California  
Connecticut  
Illinois  

$       192 
48,044 
10,040 
4,7D5 

$            1 
9,233 
543 
84 

Alabama  .  
Arkansas  
Delaware  
Florida    

$5,963 
455 
1,003 
340 

$1,113 
1 
250 
13 

T 

1  750 

3 

9,846 

5,323 

Maine  
Massachusetts.  . 
Michigan  . 
New  Hampshire 
New  Jersey  .... 
New  York  
Ohio  
Pennsylvania  .. 
Rhode  Island 

18,929 

128,505 
4,935 
11,903 
19,946 
172,115 
19.890 
43,412 
9  410 

1,719 
1,422 
4 
1,130 
8,261 
24,371 
2,687 
4,2S7 
2  1°5 

Kentucky     .  .  . 
Louisiana  
Maryland  
Mississippi  .... 
Missouri  
North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 
Tennessee  
Texas  

6,953 
834 
20,677 
4,957 
2,712 
6,010 
15,248 
4,971 
349 

4,436 
871 
406 
2,177 
813 
969 
129 
1,611 
6 

Vermont  
Wisconsin  

11,094 
2,216 

804 
806 

Virginia  

22,106 

10,000 

$502,174 

$51,930 

$101,934 

$27,618 

For  cotontetag  fre«  blacks  In  Liberia. 


180 


FEEE   FIGURES    AND   SLAVE. 


T-A.B  JL,  JB      2  Q. 
DEATHS   IN   THE   FEEE   AND   IN    THE   SLAVE   STATES— 1850.* 


Free  States. 

Number  of 
deaths. 

Ratio  to 
the  Number 
living. 

Slave  States. 

Number  of 
deaths. 

Ratio  to 
the  Number 
living. 

California  ,  .  . 

Alabama 

9084 

84  94 

Connecticut 

5  781 

64  13 

2  987 

70  18 

Illinois  

11,619 

73.28 

Delaware  

1,209 

75.71 

Indiana  

12  728 

77  65 

Florida  

933 

93  67 

Jowa  

2  044 

94  03 

Georgia 

9  920 

91  93 

Maine  

Massachusetts.  .  .  . 

7,545 
19,414 

77.29 
51.23 

Kentucky  
Louisiana  

15,206 
11,948 

64.60 

42.85 

Michigan  

4,520 

88.19 

Maryland  

9,594 

60.77 

N.  Hampshire  .... 

4268 

74.49 

Mississippi  

8  711 

69  93 

New  Jersey  

6,467 

75.70 

Missouri  

12,211 

55.81 

New  York  

44,839 

69.85 

North  Carolina  .  . 

10,207 

85.1-2 

Ohio  

Pennsylvania  
Rhode  Island  

28,949 
28,318 
2,241 

68.41 
81.68 
65.83 

South  Carolina... 
Tennessee  
Texas  

7,997 
11,759 
3,046 

83.59 
85.34 
69.79 

3,132 
2  884 

100.13 
105  82 

^  irginia  

19,053 

74.61 

184,249 

72.91 

133,865 

71.82 

EJ      30. 

FREE  WHITE  MALE  PERSONS  OVER  FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  AGE  ENGAGED  IN 
AGRICULTURAL  AND  OTHER  OUT-DOOR  LABOR  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES  — 
1850. 


States. 

Number  engaged 
ill  Agriculture. 

Number  engaged 
in  other  out-door 
labor. 

Total. 

67  742 

7229 

74  971 

28  436 

5596 

34  Q82 

6  225 

4,184 

10  4n9 

Florida                                     

5472 

2,598 

8  070 

Georgia 

82  107 

11  054 

93  161 

110  119 

26  308 

18U  4^1 

Louisiana  

11,524 

13,827 

25,351 

Maryland  

24  672 

17,146 

41  SIS 

50  028 

5,823 

55  S51 

64  292 

19  900 

S4  102 

North  Carolina 

76  333 

2l'876 

98  '214 

S  >uth  Carolina 

37  612 

6  991 

44  c,03 

Tennessee  

115  844 

16,795 

132,639 

Texas  

24  9S7 

22,713 

47  700 

Virginia  

97  654 

33  928 

131  .582 

803,052 

215,968 

1,019,020 

For  ai  explanation  of  this  Table  see  the  next  three  page* 


FKEB   FIGURES   AND   SLAVE.  181 

Too  hot  in  the  South,  and  too  unhealthy  there — white  men  "can't 
stand  it" — negroes  only  can  endure  the  heat  of  Southern  climes !  How 
often  are  our  ears  insulted  with  such  wickedly  false  assertions  as  these ! 
In  what  degree  of  latitude — pray  tell  us — in  what  degree  of  latitude  do 
the  rays  of  the  sun  "become  too  calorific  for  white  men  ?  Certainly  in 
no  part  of  the  United  States,  for  in  the  extreme  South  we  find  a  very 
large  number  of  non-slaveholding  whites  over  the  age  of  fifteen,  who 
derive  their  entire  support  from  manual  labor  in  the  open  fields.  The 
sun,  that  brilliant  bugbear  of  pro-slavery  politicians,  shone  on  more  than 
one  million  of  free  white  laborers — mostly  agriculturists — in  the  slave 
States  in  1850,  exclusive  of  those  engaged  in  commerce,  trade,  manufac 
tures,  the  mechanic  arts,  and  mining.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  these 
instances  of  exposure  to  his  wrath,  we  have  had  no  intelligence  what 
ever  of  a  single  case  of  coup  de  soleil.  Alabama  is  not  too  hot ;  sixty- 
seven  thousand  white  sons  of  toil  till  her  soil.  Mississippi  is  not  too 
hot ;  fifty-five  thousand  free  white  laborers  are  hopeful  devotees  of  her 
out-door  pursuits.  Texas  is  not  too  hot;  forty-seven  thousand  free 
white  persons,  males,  over  the  age  of  fifteen,  daily  perform  their  rural 
vocations  amidst  her  unsheltered  air. 

It  is  stated  on  good  authority  that,  in  January,  1856,  native  ice,  three 
inches  thick,  was  found  in  Galveston  Bay ;  we  have  seen  it  ten  inches 
thick  in  North  Carolina,  with  the  mercury  in  the  thermometer  at  two 
degrees  below  zero.  In  January,  185T,  while  the  snow  was  from  three 
to  five  feet  deep  in  many  parts  of  North  Carolina,  the  thermometer  indi 
cated  a  degree  of  coldness  seldom  exceeded  in  any  State  in  the  Union — 
thirteen  degrees  below  zero.  The  truth  is,  instead  of  its  being  too  hot 
in  the  South  for  white  men,  it  is  too  cold  for  negroes ;  and  we  long  to 
see  the  day  arrive  when  the  latter  shall  have  entirely  receded  from  their 
uncongenial  homes  in  America,  and  given  full  and  undivided  place  to 
the  former. 

Too  hot  in  the  South  for  white  men !  It  is  not  too  hot  for  white 
women.  Time  and  again,  in  different  counties  in  North  Carolina,  have 
we  seen  the  poor  white  wife  of  the  poor  white  husband,  following  him 
in  the  harvest-field  from  morning  till  night,  binding  up  the  grain  as 
it  fell  from  his  cradle.  In  the  immediate  neighborhood  from  which  we 
hail,  there  are  not  less  than  thirty  young  women,  non-slaveholding 
whites,  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  twenty-five — some  of  whom  are 
so  well  known  to  us  that  we  could  call  them  by  name — who  labor  in 
the  fields  every  summer ;  often  hiring  themselves  out  during  harvest- 
time,  the  very  hottest  season  of  the  year,  to  bind  wheat  and  oats — each 
of  them  keeping  up  with  the  reaper ;  and  this  for  the  paltry  considera 
tion  of  twenty -five  cents  per  day. 

That  any  respectable  man — any  man  with  a  heart  or  a  soul  in  his 
composition — can  look  upon  these  poor  toiling  white  women  without 


182  FEEE   FIGURES   AND    SLAVE. 

feeling  indignant  at  that  accursed  system  of  slavery  which  has  entailed 
on  them  the  miseries  of  poverty,  ignorance,  and  degradation,  we  shall 
not  do  ourself  the  violence  to  believe.  If  they  and  their  husbands, 
and  their  sons  and  daughters,  and  brothers  and  sisters,  are  not  righted 
in  some  of  the  more  important  particulars  in  which  they  have  been 
wronged,  the  fault  shall  lie  at  other  doors  than  our  own.  In  their  be 
half,  chiefly,  have  we  written  and  compiled  this  work  ;  and  until  our 
object  shall  have  been  accomplished,  or  until  life  shall  have  been  ex 
tinguished,  there  shall  be  no  abatement  in  our  efforts  to  aid  them  in 
regaining  the  natural  and  inalienable  prerogatives  out  of  which  they 
have  been  so  craftily  swindled.  We  want  to  see  no  more  plowing,  or 
hoeing,  or  raking,  or  grain-binding,  by  white  women  in  the  Southern 
States ;  employment  in  cotton-mills  and  other  factories  would  be  far  more 
profitable  and  congenial  to  them,  and  this  they  will  have  within  a  short 
period  after  slavery  shall  have  been  abolished. 

Too  hot  in  the  South  for  white  men !  What  is  the  testimony  of 
reliable  Southrons  themselves?  Says  Cassius  M.  Clay,  of  Kentucky: 

"  In  the  extreme  South,  at  New  Orleans,  the  laboring  men — the  stevedores  and 
haekmeii  on  the  levee,  where  the  heat  is  intensified  by  the  proximity  of  the  red 
brick  buildings,  are  all  white  men,  and  they  are  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  health. 
But  how  about  cotton  ?  I  am  informed  by  a  friend  of  mine — himself  a  slaveholder, 
and  therefore  good  authority— that  in  northwestern  Texas,  among  the  German 
settlements,  Avho,  true  to  their  national  instincts,  Avill  not  employ  the  labor  of  a 
slave — they  produce  more  cotton  to  the.  acre,  and  of  a  better  quality,  and  selling 
at  prices  from  a  cent  to  a  cent  and  a  half  a  pound  higher  than  that  produced  by 
slave  labor." 

Says  Gov.  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina : 

"  The  steady  hfiat  of  our  summers  is  not  so  prostrating  as  the  short,  but  frequent 
and  sudden,  bursts  of  Northern  summers." 

In  an  extract,  which  may  be  found  in  our  second  chapter,  and  to 
which  we  respectfully  refer  the  reader,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  same 
South  Carolinian,  speaking  of  "  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  "  non-slave- 
holding  whites,  says — "Most  of  these  now  follow  agricultural  pur 
suits." 

Says  Dr.  Cartwright,  of  New  Orleans : 

"Here  in  New  Orleans,  the  larger  part  of  the  drudgery — work  requiring  expo 
sure  to  the  sun.  as  railroad-making,  street-paving,  dray-driving,  ditching,  and 
building,  is  performed  by  white  people." 

To  the  statistical  tables  which  show  the  number  of  deaths  in  the 
free  and  in  the  slave  States  in  1850,  we  would  direct  special  attention. 
Those  persons,  particularly  the  propagandists  of  negro  slavery,  who, 
heretofore,  have  been  so  dreadfully  exercised  on  account  of  what  they 
have  been  pleased  to  term  "  the  insalubrity  of  Southern  climes," 
will  there  find  something  to  allay  their  fearful  apprehensions.  A  critical 
examination  of  said  tables  will  disclose  the  fact  that,  in  proportion  to 
population,  deaths  occur  more  frequently  in  Massachusetts  than  in  any 
Southern  State  except  Louisiana ;  more  irequontl™  in  New  York  than 


FREE    FIGURES    AND    SLAVE.  183 

in  any  of  the  Southern  States,  except  Maryland,  Missouri,  Kentucky, 
Louisiana,  and  Texas  ;  more  frequently  in  New  Jersey,  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  in  Ohio,  than  in  either  Georgia,  Florida,  or  Alabama.  Leaving 
Wisconsin  and  Louisiana  out  of  the  account,  and  then  comparing  the 
bills  of  mortality  in  the  remaining  Northern  States,  with  those  in  the 
remaining  Southern  States,  we  find  the  difference  decidedly  in  favor  of 
the  latter  :  for,  according  to  this  calculation,  while  the  ratio  of  deaths  is 
as  only  one  to  74.GO  of  the  living  population  in  the  Southern  States,  it 
is  as  one  to  72.39  in  the  Northern. 
Says  Dr.  J.  0.  Nott,  of  Mobile : 

•'  Heat,  moisture,  animal  and  vegetable  matter,  are  said  to  be  the  elements 
which  produce  the  diseases  of  the  South,  and  yet  tne  testimony  in  proof  of  the 
health  of  the  banks  of  the  lower  portion  of  the  Mississippi  River  is  too  strong  to  be 
doubted, — not  only  ths  river  itself,  but  also  the  numerous  bayous  which  meander 
through  Louisiana.  Here  is  a  perfectly  flat  alluvial  country,  covering  several 
hundred  miles,  interspersed  with  interminable  lakes,  lagunes  and  jungles,  and  still 
we  are  informed  by  Dr.  Cartwright,  one  of  the  most  acute  observers  of  the  day, 
that  this  country  is  exempt  from  miasmatic  disorders,  and  is  extremely  healthy. 
His  assertion  has  been  confirmed  to  me  by  hundreds  of  witnesses,  arid  we  know 
from  our  own  observation,  that  the  population  present  a  robust  and  healthy 
appearance." 

But  the  best  part  is  yet  to  come.  In  spite  of  all  the  blatant  assertions 
of  the  oligarchy,  that  the  climate  of  the  South  was  arranged  expressly 
for  the  negroes,  and  that  the  negroes  were  created  expressly  to  inhabit 
it  as  the  healthful  servitors  of  other  men,  a  carefully  kept  register  of  all 
the  deaths  that  occurred  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  for  the  space  of 
six  years,  shows  that,  even  in  tbat  locality  which  is  generally  regarded 
as  so  unhealthy,  the  annual  mortality  was  much  greater  among  the 
blacks,  in  proportion  to  population,  than  among  the  whites.  Dr.  Nott 
himself  shall  state  the  facts.  He  says : 

"  The  average  mortality  for  the  last  six  years  in  Charleston  for  all  ages  is  1  in  51, 
including  all  classes.  Blacks  alone  1  in  44  ;  whites  alone,  1  in  58 — a  very  remarkable 
result,  certainly.  This  mortality  is  perhaps  not  an  unfair  test,  as  the  population 
during  the  last"six  years  has  been  undisturbed  by  emigration  and  acclimated  m  & 
greater  proportion  than  at  any  former  period."  " 

Numerous  other  authorities  might  be  cited  in  proof  of  the  general 
healthiness  of  the  climate  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  Of  127 
remarkable  cases  of  American  longevity,  published  in  a  recent  edition 
of  Blake's  Biographical  Dictionary,  68  deceased  centenarians  are  credited 
to  the  Southern  States,  and  59  to  the  Northern — the  list  being  headed 
with  Betsey  Trantham,  of  Tennessee — a  white  woman,  who  died  iu 
1834,  at  the  extraordinarily  advanced  age  of  154  years. 


184 


FBEE   FIGUKES    AND    SLAVE. 


31. 


NATIVES  OF  THE  SLAVE  STATES  IN  THE  FREE  STATES,  AND  NATIVES   D5  THE 
FREE  STATES  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES.—  1850. 


Free  States. 

Natives  of  the 
Slave  States. 

Slave  States. 

Natives  of  the 
Free  States. 

California 

24055 

4,947 

1  390 

7,905 

Illinois                   .                .      . 

144,809 

Delaware  

6,996 

176  581 

Florida  

1,713 

SI  392 

4,249 

458 

Kentucky  

81,340 

2  980 

14  567 

3  634 

Maryland 

23,815 

215 

4,517 

New-Jersey  

4110 

Missouri  

55,664 

New-York 

12  Gi;>5 

North  Carolina  

2,167 

Ohio 

152  319 

2,4-27 

Pennsylvania  

47.180 

Tennessee  

6,571 

Rhode  Island 

982 

Texas  

9,982 

140 

Virginia     

25,999 

6  353 

Total  

609,223 

Total  

205,924 

This  last  table,  compiled  from  the  116th  page  of  the  Compendium  of 
the  Seventh  Census,  shows,  in  a  most  lucid  and  startling  manner,  how 
negroes,  slavery  and  slaveholders  are  driving  the  native  non-slavehold- 
ing  whites  away  from  their  homes,  and  keeping  at  a  distance  other 
decent  people.  From  the  South  the  tide  of  emigration  still  flows  in  a 
westerly  and  northwesterly  direction,  and  so  it  will  continue  to  do 
until  slavery  is  abolished. 


VALUE  OF  THE  SLAVES  AT  $400  PER  HEAD.—  1S50. 


States. 

Value  of  the  P  laves  at  S400 
per  head. 

Value  01'  Real  and  I'ersonid 
Estate,  less  the  value  of 
slaves  lit  $-100  per  head. 

$137,137  GOO 

$51,000  732 

lS,S4n,000 

21.0111,025 

Delaware                                       

916.000 

17,939.803 

Florida                                               

15,724,iiOO 

7.474.734 

Georgia 

152,  672,81)0 

1S2  7.r>  91  4 

Kentucky                 '    

84,392.400 

217.236,050 

97,923,600 

186,075,164 

Maryland                                          

36,  147,  -200 

1S3  ()7o  16-1 

123,951,200 

105,00"  0(iQ 

Missouri 

34  963  SOO 

1('2  278  907 

North  Carolina       

115,419,200 

111,381,272 

153  993  600 

134  9(34  r-94 

95,753,6(0 

111  671,10-1 

23,264.400 

82  097  940 

Virginia 

189  Oil  200 

202  634  63S 

$1,280,145.600 

$1.655,945,137 

*  It  Is  intended  that  this  table  shall  be  considered  in  connection  with  table  No.,  10, 


FEEE  FIGURES   AND   SLAVE. 


185 


To  Dr.  G.  Bailey,  editor  of  the  National  Era,  Washington  City,  D.  0., 
we  are  indebted  for  the  following  useful  and  interesting  statistics,  to 
which  some  of  our  readers  will  doubtless  have  frequent  occasion  to  refer' 


PRESIDENTS    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


March  4, 17S9 

"  3. 1797 
March  4,'  1797 

"  3, 1S01 
March  4,  ISO  I 

"  3,  1S09 
March  4,  1S09 

"  3,  1S17 
March  4,  IS  17 

"  3,  1S25 
March  4,  IS'25 

"  3,  1S-29 
March  4,  1S29 

"     8,  1S-37 


!•  George  Washington,  Virginia. 
>•  John  Adams,  Massachusetts, 
t  Thomas  Jefferson,  Virginia, 
i  James  Madison,  Virginia. 
1  James  Monroe,  Virginia. 
/•John  Q.  Adams,  Mass. 
[•Andrew  Jackson,  Tennessee. 


March  4,  1S37 

"  3,  1S41 
March  4,  1S41 

"  3,  1S45 
March  4,  1S45 

"  3, 1S49 
March  4,  1S49 

"  3,  1S53 
March  4,  1S53 

"  3,  1S57 
March  4,  1S57 

"      3,  1S61 


Martin  V,in  Buren,  New  Yoik, 
William  H.  Harrison,  Ohio. 
James  K.  Polk,  Tennessee. 
Zachary  Taylor,  Louisiana. 
Franklin  Pierce,  N.  H. 
James  Buchanan,  Penn. 


At  the  close  of  the  term  for  which  Mr.  Buchanan  is  elected,  it  will  have  been 
seventy- two  years  since  the  organization  of  the  present  government. 

In  that  period,  there  have  been  eighteen  elections  for  President,  the  candidates 
chosen  in  twelve  of  them  being  Southern  men  and  slaveholders,  in  six  of  them 
Northern  men  and  non-slaveholders. 

No  Northern  man  has  ever  been  reflected,  but  five  Southern  men  have  been  thus 
honored. 

Gen.  Harrison,  of  Ohio,  died  one  month  after  his  inauguration.  Gen.  Taylor,  of 
Louisiana,  about  four  months  after  his  inauguration.  In  the  former  case,  John 
Tyler,  of  Virginia,  became  acting  President,  in  the  latter,  Millard  Fillmore  of  New 
York. 

Of  the  seventy-two  years,  closing  with  Mr.  Buchanan's  term,  should  he  live  it 
out,  Southern  men  and  slaveholders  have  occupied  the  Presidential  chair  forty 
eigiit  years  and  three  months,  or  a  little  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  time. 

THE    SUPEEME    COTJET. 

The  judicial  districts  are  organized  so  as  to  give  five  judges  to  the  slave  States, 
and  four  to  the  free,  although  the  population,  wealth  and  business  of  the  latter  are 
far  in  advance  of  those  of  the  former.  The  arrangement  affords,  however,  an  ex 
cuse  for  constituting  the  Supreme  Court,  with  a  majority  of  judges  from  the  slave 
holding  States. 


MEMBEES. 


Chief  Justice— R.  B.  Taney,  Maryland. 
Associate  Justice — J.  M.  Wayne,  Georgia. 

"          John  Catron,  Tennessee. 

"          P.  V.  Darnel,  Virginia. 

"          John  A.  Campbell,  Ala. 
"  "          John  McLean,  Ohio. 


Associate  Justice — S.  Nelson,  New  York. 

"          R.  C.  Grier,  Pennsylvania. 

"          Nathan  Clifford,  Maine, 
Reporter,  B.  C.  Howard,  Maryland. 
Clerk,  W.  T.  Carroll,  D.  C. 


SECRETAEIE3   OF   STATE. 

The  highest  office  in  the  Cabinet  is  that  of  Secretary  of  State,  who  has  under  hia 
charge  the  foreign  relations  of  the  country.  Since  the  year  1789,  there  have  been 
twenty-three  appointments  to  the  office — fourteen  from  slave  States,  nine  from  free. 
Or,  counting  by  years,  the  post  has  been  filled  by  Southern  men  and  slaveholders 
very  nearly  forty  years  out  of  sixty-nine  as  follows  : 


Appointed. 

Sept.  26,  17S9,  Thomas  Jefferson,  Virginia. 
Jan.      2,  J794,  E.  Randolph,  Virginia. 
Dec.   10,  1795,  T.  Pickering,  Massachusetts. 
May  13,  1800,  J.  Marshall,  Virginia. 
March  5, 1801,  James  Madison,  Virginia. 
March  6,  18U9,  R.  Smith,  Maryland. 
April    2, 1811,  James  Monroe,  Virginia. 
Feb.   28,1815,      "  " 

March  5,  1815,  J.  Q.  Adams,  Massachusetts. 
March  7,  1825,  Henry  Clay,  Kentucky. 
March  6, 1829,  Martin  Van  Buren,  New  York. 
Hay  24, 1SS1,  E.  Livingston,  Louisiana. 


Appointed. 

May  29,  1833,  Louis  McLane,  Delaware. 
June  27,  1834,  J.  Forsyth,  Georgia. 
March  5,  1S41,  Daniel  Webster,  Mass. 
July    24,  1S43,  A.  P.  Upshm,  Virginia. 
March  6, 1844,  J.  C.  Calhoua,  South  Carolina 
March  5,  1845,  James  Buchanan,  Penn. 
March  7, 1849,  J.  M.  Clayton,  Delaware. 
July  20,  1850,  Daniel  Webster,  Mass. 
Dec.     9,  1851,  E.  Everett,  Massachusetts 
March  5, 1853,  W.  L.  Marcy,  New  York. 
March  G,  1857,  Lewis  Cass,  Michigan, 


186 


FREE    FIGURES    AND   SLAVE. 


PRESIDENTS    PRO    TEM.    OF    THE    SENATE. 

Since  the  year  1809,  every  President  pro  tern,  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
has  been  a  Southern  man  and  slaveholder,  with  the  exception  of  Samuel  L.  South 
ard,  of  New  Jersey,  who  held  the  office  for  a  very  short  time,  and  Mr.  Bright,  ot' 
Indiana,  who  has  held  it  for  one  or  two  sessions,  we  believe,  having  been  elected, 
however,  as  a  known  adherent  of  the  slave  interest,  believed  to  be  interested  in 
slave  "property." 


SPEAKERS 


THE    HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES. 


M&M791   [P-  A'  Muhlenberg,  Penn. 

Dec.  5,  1825 
March  3,  1827 

March*'1  1793  f  J'  Trumbull,  Connecticut. 

June2,  ^SS* 

M^h'3i;r??95[F-A-Muhlenbe^Pe-- 

June  2.  1834 
March  3,  1  835 

M^3n??97JJonaLhanD^ton'N-J- 

Dec.  7,  1835 

Mav  15,  1797    }         „               „          « 
March  3,  1799  j 

Mw'chVS*! 

M^h'3;?SOlfThCod-eSea^ick'MaSS' 

Mafch^^ls 

M^h'3,S180TfNathaEielMaCOn'N-C- 

March  3,81S45 

MarchV'lSU  }J'B-  Varnum.  Massachnsetts. 

Dec.  1,  1845 
March  3,  1847 

5anCl94'lS?r  f  Hc«y  Cla^'  Kentucky. 

Dec.  (i,  1847 
March  3,  1849 

^rclfdsfof1-"^-^--'8-0- 

MwchV«51 

Nov.  tsllSo   i  HemT  Clay'  Kentuck^- 

M^'chsfiSSS 

March!,1!8  fl   }  J"  W«  Tayl°r'  NeW  York 

Dec.  1,  1853 
March  3,  1855 

M^^3^23|P-B-Earbo-'Vi^a- 

Feb.  28,  1S5G 
March  3,  1857 

MSch  sfl'lo  }Henry  Cla^'  Kentucky. 

MaCrch  3^1859 

j-Vv.  Taylor,  New  York. 
A.  Stevenson,  Virginia. 


,  Georgia. 


Nathaniel  P.  Banks,  Mass, 


POSTMASTERS-GENERA  L. 

Appointee! — 


Appointed — 

Sept.    26,  1789,  S.  Osgood,  Massachusetts. 
Aug.    12,  1791,  T.  Pickering,  Massachusetts. 
Feb.     '25,  1795,  J.  Habersham,  Georgia. 
Nov.    28,  1SOI,  G.  Granger,  Connecticut. 
March  17,  1S14,  R  J.  Meigs,  Ohio. 
June    25  1S23,  John  McLean,  Ohio. 
March  9,  1829,  W.  T.  Barry,  Kentucky. 
May      1,  1S35,  A.  Kendall,  Kentucky. 
May    IS,  1840,  J.  M.  Niles,  Connecticut. 

Sectionalism  does  not  seem  to  have  had  much  to  do  with  this  department  or  with 
that  of  the  interior,  created  in  1848-'49. 

SECRETARIES    OF    THE    INTERIOR. 


March  6,  1841,  F.  Granger,  New  York. 
Sept.    13,  1S41,  C.  A.  Wcklifle,  Kentucky. 
March  5,  1845,  C.  Johnson,  Tennessee. 
March  7,  1S49,  J.  Collainer,  Vermont. 
July    20,  ISrx),  N.  K.  Hall,  New  York. 
Aug.    31,  1S52,  S.  D.  llubbard,  Connecticut. 
March  5,  1853,  J.  Campbell,  Pennsylvania. 
March  6,  1857,  Aaron  V.  Brown,  Tennessee. 


Appointed — 

March  7,  1849,  T.  Ewing,  Ohio. 
July   20,  1850,  J.  A.  Pearce,  Maryland. 
Aug.   15,  1850,  T.  M.  T.  McKennon,  Pa. 


ATTORNEYS 

Appointed  — 
Sept.  26,  17S9,  E.  Randolph,  Virginia. 
June  27,  1794,  W.  Bradford,  Pennsylvania. 
Dec.    10,  1795,  C.  Lee,  Virginia. 
Feb.    20,  1800,  T.  Parsons,  Massachusetts. 
March  5,  1SOI,  L.  Lincoln,  Massachusetts. 
March  2,  1805,  II.  Smith,  Maryland. 
Dec.    23,  1805,  J.  Breckinridge,  Kentucky. 
Jan.    20,  1S07,  C.  A.  Rodnev,  Pennsylvania. 
Dec.    11,  1811,  W.  Pinkney,  Maryland. 
Feb.    10,  TS14,  R.  Rush,  Pennsylvania. 
Nov.   13,  1817,  W.  Wirt,  Virginia. 
March  9,  1829,  J.  McPherson  Berrien,  Georgia. 
July  20,  1881,  Roger  B.  Taney,  Maryland. 

-GENERAL. 

Appointed  — 
Nov.  15,  1833,  1 
July      7,  1888,  1 
Jan.    10,  1840,  ] 
March  5,  1841,, 
Sept..  13,  1841,  1 
July     1,1843,, 
March  5,  1845,  . 
Oct.    17.  1846,  I 
June  21,  1S4S,  1 
March  7,  1849,  I 
July    20,  1850,  J 
March  5,  1853,  ( 
MarcL  6,  1857,  J 

Appointed — 

Sept.  12,  1^50,  A.  H.  IT.  Stuart,  Virginia. 
March  5,  1853,  II.  McClelland,  Michigan. 
March  G,  1857,  Jacob  Thompson,  Mississippi 


B.  F.  Butler,  New  York. 
F.  Grundy,  Tennessee. 

H.  D.  Gilpin,  Pennsylvania. 

J.  J.  Ci itteiiden,  Kentucky. 

H.  8.  Legare,  !?outh  Carolina, 

John  Nelson,  Maryland. 

J.  Y.  Mason,  Virginia. 

N.  Clifford,  Maine. 

Isaac  Toucey,  Connecticut. 

II.  Johnson,  Maryland. 

J.  J.  Crittendcn,  Kentucky. 

C.  Cushing,  Massachusetts. 
Jeremiah  S.  Black,  Pa, 


FREE    FIGUKES    AND    SLAVE. 


187 


SECRETARIES  OF  THE  TREASURY. 

•I"he  post  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  although  one  of  greatimportance,  requires 
financial  abilities  of  a  high  order,  -which  are  more  frequently  found  in  the  North 
than  in  the  South,  and  affords  little  opportunity  for  influencing  general  politics,  or 
the  questions  springing  out  of  slavery.  We  need  not,  therefore,  be  surprised  to 
learn  that  Northern  men  have  been  allowed  to  discharge  its  duties  some  forty-eight 
years  out  of  sixty-nine,  as  follows : 

Appointed — 

Sept.  23,  1833,  Roger  B.  Taney,  Maryland. 
June  27,  1334,  L.  Woodbury,  New  Hampshire. 
March  5,  1841,  Thomas  Ewing,  Olm>. 
Sept.  13,  1S41,  W.  Forward,  Pennsylvania. 
March  3,  1S43,  J.  C.  Spencer,  New  York. 
June  15,  1844,  G.  M.  Bibb,  Kentucky. 
March  5,  1845,  It.  J.  Walker.  Mississippi. 
March  7,  1840,  W.  M.  Meredith,  Pennsylvania. 
June  20,  1S50,  Thomas  Convin,  Ohio. 
March  5,  1853,  James  Guthrie,  Kentucky. 
March  G,  1S5T,  Howell  Cobb,  Georgia. 


Appointed — 
Sept.  11,  17S9, 
Feb.  3,  1795, 
Dec.  31,  1SOO, 
May  14,  1601, 
Feb.  9.1814, 
Oct.  6,  1S14, 
Oct.  22,  iSUi, 
March  7,  1S25, 
March  G,  132!), 
Aug.  8,  1S31, 
May  29,  1833, 


A.  Hamilton,  New  York. 
0.  Wolcott,  Connecticut. 
S.  Dexter,  Massachusetts. 
A.  Gallatin,  Pennsylvania. 
G.  W.  Campbell,  Tennessee. 
A.  J.  Dallas,  Pennsylvania. 
W.  II.  Crawford,  Georgia. 
K.  Hush,  Pennsylvania. 
S.  D.  Ingham,  Pennsylvania. 
L.  McLane,  Delaware. 
W.  J.  Duane,  Pennsylvania. 


SECRETARIES    OF    WAR    AND    TI1E    NAVY. 


The  slaveholders,  since  March  8th,  1841,  a  period  of  nearly  eighteen  years,  have 
taken  almost  exclusive  supervision  of  the  navy.  Northern  men  having  occupied  the 
Secretaryship  only  six  years.  Nor  has  any  Northern  man  been  Secretary  of  Wai 
since  1849.  Considering  that  nearly  all  the  shipping  belongs  to  the  free  States, 
which  also  supply  the  seamen,  it  does  seem  remarkable  that  slaveholders  should 
have  monopolized  for  the  last  eighteen  years  the  control  of  the  navy. 


SECRETARIES    OF    WAR. 


Appointed — 
Sept.  12, 1789, 
Jan.  2,  1795, 
Jan.  27,1796, 
May  7, 1SOO, 
May  13, 1800, 
Feb.  3,  ISO  I, 
March  5, 1801, 
March  7,  1802, 
Jan.  13,  1813, 
Sept.  27,  1814, 
March  3,  1815, 
March  5,  1817, 
April  7,  1817, 
Oct.  8,  1817, 
March  7,  1825, 
May  2G,  1828. 


Henry  Knox,  Massachusetts. 
T.  Pickering,  Massachusetts. 
J.  McIIenry,  Maryland. 
J.  Marshall,  Virginia. 
S.  Dexter,  Massachusetts. 
K  Griswold,  Connecticut. 
H.  Dearborn,  Massachusetts. 
W.  Eustis,  Massachusetts. 
J.  Armstrong,  New  York. 
James  Monroe,  Virginia. 
W.  II.  Crawford,  Georgia.. 
J.  Shelby,  Kentucky. 
G.  Graham,  Virginia. 
J.  C.  Calhoun,  South  Carolina. 
J.  Barbour,  Virginia. 
P.  B.  Porter,  Pennsylvania. 


Appointed- 
March  9, 1829,  J.  II,  Eaton,  Tennessee. 
Aug.     1,  1S31,  Lewis  Cass,  Ohio. 
March  3,  1837,  B.  F.  Butler,  New  York. 
March  7, 1837,  J.  K.  Poinsett,  South  Carolina. 
March  5,  1841,  James  Bell,  Tennessee. 
Sept.  13,  1841,  John  McLean,  Ohio. 
Oct.     12,  184 1,  J.  C.  S|iencer,  New  York. 
March  S,  1843,  J.  W.  Porter,  Pennsvlvania. 
Feb.    15,  1844,  W.  Wilkins,  Pennsylvania. 
March  5, 1845,  William  L.  Marcv,  New  York. 
March  7,  1849,  G.  W.  Crawford,  Georgia, 
July    20,  1850,  E.  Bates,  Missouri. 
Aug.   15,  1850,  C.  M.  Coimu!,  Louisiana. 
March  5,  1853,  Jefferson  Davis,  Mississippi. 
March  6,  1857,  John  B.  Floyd,  Virginia. 


SECRETARIES   OF   THE   NAVY. 


Appointed- 
May     3,  1798,  G.  Cabot,  Massachusetts. 
May   21,  179S,  B.  Stoddart,  Massachusetts. 
July    15,  1801,  K.  Smith,  Maryland. 
May     3,  1805,  J.  Crowninshield,  Mass. 
March  7, 1809,  P.  Hamilton,  South  Carolina. 
Jan.    12  1813,  W.Jones,  Pennsylvania. 
Dec.   17j  1814,  B.  W.  Crowninshield,  Mass. 
Nov.     9,  1818,  Smith  Thompson,  New  York. 
Sept.    1, 1823,  John  Rogers,  Massachusetts. 
Sept.  1(5,  1823,  S.  L.  Southard,  New  Jersey. 
March  9,  1829,  John  Branch,  North  Carolina. 
May    23,  1831,  L.  Woodbury,  New  Hampshire. 
June  30,  1834,  M.  Dickerson,  New  Jersey. 


Appointed — 

June     20, 1838,  J.  K.  Paulding,  New  York. 
March    5,  1841,  G.  F.  Badger,  North  Carolina 
Sept.    13,  1841,  A.  P.  Upshur,  Virginia. 
July     24, 1843,  D.  Henshaw,  Massachusetts. 
Feb.      12,  1844,  T.  W.  Gilrner,  Virginia. 
March  14,  1844,  James  Y.  Mason,  Virginia. 
March  10,  1845,  G.  Bancroft,  Massachusetts. 
Sept.       9,  1S4G,  James  Y.  Mason,  Virginia. 
March    7,  1849,  W.  B.  Preston,  Virginia. 
July      20,  1850,  W.  A.  Graham,  N.  Carolina. 
July      22, 1852,  J.  P.  Kennedy,  Maryland. 
March    3,  1853,  J.  C.  Dobbin,  N.  Carolina. 
March    6,  1857,  Isaac  Toucey,  Connecticut. 


RECAPITULATION. 

Presidency.— Southern  men  and  slaveholders,  48  years  3  months ;  Northern  mcu, 
23  years  9  months. 

Pro  Tern.  Presidency  of  the  Senate. — Since  1809,  held  by  Southern  men  £»Jii 
slaveholdara  ex?ept  for  three  or  four  sessions  by  Northern  men. 


188 


FBEE   FIGURES   AND    SLAVE. 


Speakership  of  the  House.—  Filled  by  Southern  men  and  slaveholers  forty-five 
years,  Northern  men,  twenty-five. 

Supreme  Court.— A  majority  of  the  Judges,  including  Chief-Justice,  southern  men 
and  slaveholders. 

Secretaryship  of  State. — Filled  by  southern  men  and  slaveholders  forty  years ; 
northern,  twenty-nine. 

Attorney  Generalship. — Filled  by  southern  men  and  slaveholders  forty-two  years ; 
northern  men,  twenty-seven. 

War  and  Navy.—  Secretaryship  of  the  Navy,  southern  men  and  slaveholders,  the 
last  eighteen  years,  with  an  interval  of  six  years. 

WILLIAM    HENRY    HURLBUT, 

Of  South  Carolina,  a  gentleman  of  enviable  literary  attainments,  and 
one  from  whom  we  may  expect  a  continuation  of  good  service  in  the 
eminently  holy  crusade  now  going  on  against  slavery  and  the  devil,  fur 
nished  not  long  since,  to  the  Edinburgh  Revieio,  in  the  course  of  a  long 
and  highly  interesting  article,  the  following  summary  of  oligarchal  usur 
pations — showing  that  slaveholders  have  occupied  the  principal  posts  of 
the  government  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  time : 

Presidents 11  out  of    16 

Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 17  out  of    28 

Attorneys-General 14  out  of    19 

Presidents  of  the  Senate Gl  out  of    77 

Speakers  of  the  House 21  out  of    33 

Foreign  Ministers 80  out  of  134 

As  a  matter  of  general  interest,  and  as  showing  that,  while  there  have 
been  but  eleven  non-slaveholders  directly  before  the  people  as  candidates 
for  the  Presidency,  there  have  been  at  least  sixteen  slaveholders  who 
were  willing  to  serve  their  country  in  the  capacity  of  chief  magistrate 
the  following  table  may  be  here  introduced  : 

RESULT  OF  THE   PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTIONS   IN  THE   UNITED   STATES  tROM 
1706  TO  1856. 

Year.      Name  of  Candidate. 


1796 
1800 
1804 
1808 
1812 
1816 
1820 

1824 

I 
L828  j 


John  Adams 

Thomas  Jefferson 

Thomas  Jefferson 

John  Adams 

Thomas  Jefferson 

Charles  C.  Pinckney 

James  Madison 

Charles  C.  Pinckney 

James  Madison 

De  Witt  Clinton 

James  Monroe 

Rufus  King 

James  Monroe 

No  opposition  but  one  vote 

Andrew  Jackson* 

John  Q.  Adams 

W.  H.  Crawford 

Henry  Clay 

Andrew  Jackson 

John  Q.  Adams 


'1  vot 
71 
68 
73 
64 
162 
14 
128 
45 
122 
89 
183 
34 
218 

99 
84 
41 

37 

178 
83 

j.  Year 
1832, 

1836- 

1840' 
1844' 
1848 
1852 
1856- 

Name  of  Candidate. 
Andrew  Jackson  

Elect'!  vote. 
219 

Henry  Clay.. 

49 

John  Floyd  

11 

William  Wirt  

7 

Martin  Van  Burea  
William  H.  Harrison.  . 

..       170 
73 

Hugh  L.  White  
Willie  P.  Man^um  .  .    . 

26 
11 

Daniel  Webster  
William  H.  Harrison. 

14 
234 

Martin  Van  Buren  

60 

James  K.  Polk  

170 

Henry  C'av          

105 

Zacharv  Taylor  

.  .       163 
127 

Lewis  Cass 

Franklin  Pierce     .    .  .   . 

254 

General  Winfield  Scott.. 
James  Buchanan 

42 
174 

John  C.  Fremont  

114 

MillardPillmore... 

8 

AID    FOR    KANSAS. 

As  a  sort  of  accompaniment  to  many  of  the  preceding  tables,  we  will 


*  No  choice  by  the  people-  John  Q.  Adams  elected  by  the  House  of  Representatives. 


FREE   FIGURES    AND    SLAVE.  189 

here  introduce  a  few  items  which  will  more  fully  illustrate  the  liberality 
of  freedom  and  the  niggardliness  of  slavery. 

From  an  editorial  article  that  appeared  in  the  Richmond  (Va.,)  Dis 
patch,  in  July,  1856,  bewailing  the  close-fistedness  of  slavery,  we  make 
the  following  extract : 

11  Gervit  Smith,  the  Abolitionist,  has  just  pledged  himself  to  give  $1,500  a  month 
for  the  next  twelve  months  to  aid  in  establishing  freedom  in  Kansas.  lie  gave,  but 
a  short  time  since,  at  the  Kansas  relief  meeting  in  Albany,  $3,000.  Prior  to  that, 
he  had  sent  about  $1,000  to  the  Boston  Emigrant  Committee.  Out  of  his  own 
funds,  he  subsequently  equipped  a  Madison  county  company,  of  one  hundred  picked 
men,  and  paid  their  expenses  to  Kansas.  At  Syracuse  he  subscribed  $10,000  for 
Abolition  purposes,  so  that  his  entire  contributions  amount  to  at  least  $40,000." 

Under  date  of  August  9,  1856,  an  Eastern  paper  informs  us  that 

"  The  sum  of  $500  was  contributed  at  a  meeting  at  New  Bedford  on  Monday 
evening,  to  make  Kansas  free.  The  following  sums  have  been  contributed  for  the 
same  purpose:  $2.000  in  Taunton;  $600  in  Raynham ;  $800  in  Clinton;  $300  in 
Danbury,  Ct.  In  Wisconsin,  $2,500  at  Janesville;  $500  at  Dalton;  $500  at  the 
Women's  Aid  Meeting  in  Chicago ;  $2,000  in  Rockford,  111." 

A  telegraphic  dispatch,  dated  Boston,  January  2,  1857,  says : 

"  The  Secretary  of  the  Kansas  Aid  Committee  acknowledges  the  receipt  of 

$42,078." 

Exclusive  of  the  amounts  above,  the  readers  of  the  ISTew  York  Trib 
une  contributed  at  least  $30,000  for  the  purpose  of  securing  Kansas  to 
Freedom ;  and  with  the  same  object  in  view,  other  individuals  and  socie 
ties,  as  occasion  required,  made  large  contributions,  of  which  we  failed 
to  keep  a  memorandum.  The  Legislature  of  Vermont  appropriated 
$20,000;  and  o'lier  free  state  legislatures  were  prepared  to  appropriate 
millions,  if  necessary.  Free  men  had  determined  that  Kansas  should  be 
free,  and  free  it  is,  and  will  ever  so  remain.  All  honor  to  the  immortal 
patriots  who  saved  her  from  the  death-grasp  of  slavery ! 

Now  let  us  see  how  Slavery  rewarded  the  poor,  ignorant,  deluded, 
and  degraded  mortals — swaggering  lickspittles — who  labored  so  hard  to 
gain  for  it  a  "local  habitation  and  a  name"  in  the  disputed  territory. 
One  D.  B.  Atchison,  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  Border 
Ruffians,  shall  tell  us  all  about  it.  Over  date  of  October  13th,  1856,  he 
says : 

"  Up  to  this  moment,  from  all  the  States  except  Missouri,  we  have  only  received 
the  following  sums,  and  through  the  following  persons : 

A.  W.  Jones,  Houston,  Miss. $152 

H.  D.  Clayton,  Eufala,  Ala 500 

Capt.  Deedrick,  South  Carolina 500 


$1,152" 

On  this  subject  further  comment  is  unnecessary. 

Numerous  other  contrasts,  equally  disproportionate,  might  be  drawn 
between  the  vigor  and  munificence  of  Freedom  and  the  impotence  and 
stinginess  of  Slavery.  TTe  will,  however,  in  addition  to  the  above, 
advert  to  only  a  single  instance.  During  the  Litter  part  of  the  sumniei 


190  FKEE  FIGFBE8   AND   SLATE. 

of  1855,  the  citizens  of  the  despicable  little  slave-towns  of  Norfolk  and 
Portsmouth,  in  Virginia,  were  sorely  plagued  with  yellow  fever.  Many 
of  them  fell  victims  to  the  disease,  and  most  of  those  who  survived, 
and  who  were  not  too  unwell  to  travel,  left  their  homes  horror-stricken 
and  dejected.  To  the  honor  of  mankind  in  general,  and  to  the  glory 
of  freemen  in  particular,  contributions  in  money,  provisions,  clothing, 
and  other  valuable  supplies,  poured  in  from  all  parts  of  the  country  for 
the  relief  of  the  sufferers.  Portsmouth  alone,  according  to  the  report 
of  her  relief  association,  received  $42,547  in  cash  from  the  free  States, 
and  only  $12,182  in  cash  from  all  the  slave  States,  exclusive  of  Virginia, 
within  whose  borders  the  malady  prevailed.  Including  Virginia,  the 
sum  total  of  all  the  slave  State  contributions  amounted  to  only  $33,398. 
"Well  did  the  Richmond  Examiner  remark  at  the  time — "  we  fear  that 
generosity  of  Virginians  is  but  a  figure  of  speech."  Slavery !  thy  name 
is  shame ! 

The  following  statistics  of  Congressional  representation,  which  we 
transcribe  from  "  Reynolds'  Political  Map  of  the  United  States,"  pub 
lished  in  1850,  deserve  to  be  carefully  studied: 

UNITED    STATES    SENATE. 

Sixteen  free  States,  with  a  white  population  of  13,238,670  have  thirty-two 
Senators. 

Fifteen  slave  States,  with  a  white  population  of  0,180,477,  have  thirty  Senators. 

So  that  41.'}, 70S  free  men  of  the  North  enjoy  but  the  same  political  privileges  in 
the  United  States  Senate  as  is  given  to  200,215  slave  propagandists. 

HOUSE    OF    EEPEESENTATIVES. 

The  free  States  have  a  total  of  144  members. 
The  slave  States  have  a  total  of  00  members. 

One  free  State  Representative  represents  91,935  white  men  and  women. 
One  slave  State  Representative  represents  08,725  white  men  and  women. 
Slave  Representation  gives  to  slavery  an  advantage  over  freedom  of  thirty  votes 
in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

CUSTOM   HOUSE    RECEIPTS 1854. 

Free  States $00,010,489 

Slave  States 5.13G.909 


Balance  in  favor  of  the  Free  States $54,873,520 

A  contrast  quite  distinguishable ! 

That  the  apologists  of  slavery  cannot  excuse  the  shame  and  the  sliab- 
biness  of  themselves  and  their  country,  as  we  have  frequently  heard 
them  attempt  to  do,  by  falsely  asserting  that  the  North  has  enjoyed 
over  the  South  the  advantages  of  priority  of  settlement,  will  fully 
appear  from  the  following  table: 


FKEE    FIGUP.ES    ASTD    SLAVE. 


191 


lof'7  Virginia  fm 
1027  Delaware  st 
10:55  Maryland  s 
1  (},">'.>  North  Carol 
1C7n  South  Carol 
17:5:?  Georgia  sett 
17S2  Kentucky  a 
179(5  Tennessee  a 
1S1I  Louisiana  a 
1S17  Mississippi 
1S19  Alabama  ac 
IS'-'  1  Missouri  ad 
1836  Arkansas  n< 
1S45  Florida  adn 
1S46  Texas  admi 

t  settled  by  the  English, 
tiled  by  the  Swedes  and  Fins 
•ttled  by  Irish  Catholics, 
ilia  settled  by  the  English. 
na  settled  bvthe  Huguenot& 
led  by  Gen.  Oglethorpe. 
Imitled  into  the  Union, 
limited  into  the  Union, 
milled  into  the  Union, 
limited  into  the  Union, 
lilted  into  the  Union, 
itted  into  the  Union, 
nit  ted  into  the  Union. 
tied  into  the  Union. 
ted  into  the  Union. 

JFKEE    STATES.  SLAVE    STATES. 

.614  New  York  first  settled  by  the  Dutch. 
1C2U  Massachusetts  sealed  l>y  Mi-.-  Puritan.?. 
lt>-2o  Now  Hampshire  seiil-jd  by  the  Puritans. 
10'J4   New  Jersey  settled  by  the  Dutch. 

1635  Connecticut  settled  by  the  Puritans. 

1636  Rhode  Isl.ind  sett  led  bj  Kojrer  Williams. 
ICivj  Pennsylvania  settled  by  William  Petm. 
17iM    Vermont  admitted  into  the  Union. 

1802  Ohio  admitted  into  the  Union. 
IS10   Indiana  admitted  into  the  Union. 
ISIS  Illinois  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1S-2.I  Maine  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1S3;>  Michigan  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1S4<5  Iowa  admitted  into  the  Union. 
3S-1S  Wisconsin  admitted  into  the  Union. 
1S50  California  admitted  into  the  Union. 

In  the  course  of  an  exceedingly  interesting  article  on  the  early  settle 
ments  in  America,  li.  K.  Browne,  formerly  editor  and  proprietor  of  tlio 
San  Francisco  Evening  Journal,  says  : 

"  Many  people  seem  to  think  that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  were  the  first  who  settled 
upon  our  shores,  and  therefore  that  they  ought  to  be  entitled,  in  a  particular  man 
ner,  to  our  remembrance  and  esteem. 

"  This  is  not  the  ease,  and  we  herewith  present  to  our  readers  a  list  of  settle 
ments  made  in  the  present  United  States,  prior  to  that  of  Plymouth : 

15(J4.  A  Colony  or'  French  Protestants  under  Ribault,  settled  in  Florida. 

15I55.  St.  Augustine*  founded  by  Pedro  Meletnlez. 

15S4.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  obtains  a  patent  and  sends  two  vessels  to  the  American 
coast,  which  receives  the  name  of  Virginia. 

KJdT.  The  lirst  effectual  settlement  made  at  Jamestown.  Va.,  by  the  London 
Company. 

1(514.  A  fort  erected  by  the  Dutch  upon  the  site  of  New  York. 

1615.  Fort  Orange  built  near  the  site  of  Albany,  N.  Y. 

1(515).  The  first  General  Assembly  called  in  Virginia. 

1020.  The  Pilgrims  land  on  Plymouth  Hock." 

FREEDOM    AND    SLAVERY    AT    THE    FAIR. 
WHAT     FREEDOM     DID. 

At  an  Agricultural  Fair  held  at  "Watertown,  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  on  the  2d  day  of  October,  1856,  two  hundred  and  twenty  pre 
miums,  ranging  from  three  to  fifty  dollars  each,  were  awarded  to  suc 
cessful  competitors — the  aggregate  amount  of  said  premiums  being 
$2,39(5,  or  an  average  of  $10  89  each.  From  the  proceedings  of  the 
Awarding  Committee  we  make  the  following  extracts : 


Best  Team  of  Oxen, 

Best  Horse  Colt, 

Best  Filly, 

Best  Brood  Mare, 

Best  Bull, 

Best  Heifer, 

Best  Cow, 

Best  Stall-fed  Beef, 

Best  sample  Wheat, 

Best  sample  Flaxsced, 

Best  sample  Timothy  Seed, 

Best  sample  Sweet  Corn, 


Hiram  Converse $50  00 

George  Parish '25  00 

J.  Staplin 20  00 

A.  Blunt 25  00 

Wm.  Johnson 25  00 

A.  M.  Rogers 20  00 

C.  Baker 25  00 

J.  W.  Taylor 10  00 

Wm.  Ottley 5  00 

H.  Weir 3  00 

E.  S.  Hay  ward 3  00 

L  Marshall .    3  00 


Aggregate  amount  of  twelve  premiums $214  00 

An  average  of  $17  83  each. 

•  The  oldest  town  in  the  United  State* 


192  FREE   FIGURES    AND    SLAVE. 

WHAT      SLAYER  T     DID. 

At  the  Rowan  County  Agricultural  Fair,  held  at  Mineral  Springs,  ia 
North  Carolina,  on  13th  day  of  Novembeiv  1856,  thirty  premiums 
ranging  from  twenty-five  cents  to  two  dollars  each,  were  awarded  to 
successful  competitors — the  aggregate  amount  of  said  premiums  being 
$42  00,  or  an  average  of  $1  40  each.  From  the  proceedings  of  the 
Awarding  Committee  we  make  the  following  extracts  : 

Best  pair  Match  Horses,  R.  \V.  Griffith $2  00 

Best  Horse  Colt,  T.  A.  Burke 2  00 

Best  Filly,  James  Cowan 2  00 

Best  Brood  Mare,  M.  W.  Goodman 2  00 

Best  Ball,  J.  F.  MeCorkle 2  00 

Best  Heifer,  J.  F.  McCorkie 2  00 

Best  Cow,  T.  A.  Burke 2  00 

Best  Stall-fed  Beef,  S.  I).  Eankin 1  00 

Best  Sample  Wheat,  M  W  .  Goodman 50 

Best  Lot  Beets,  J.  J.  Siimmerell 25 

Best  Lot  Turnips,  Thomas  Barber 25 

Best  Lot  Cabbage,  Thomas  Hyde 25 

Aggregate  amount  of  twelve  premiums $16  25 

An  average  of  $1  36  each. 

Besides  the  two  hundred  and  twenty  premiums,  amounting  in  the 
aggregate  to  $2,396,  Freedom  granted  several  diplomas  and  silver  medals; 
besides  the  thirty  premiums  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  $42,  Slavery 
granted  none — nothing.  While  examining  these  figures,  it  should  be 
recollected  that  agriculture  is  the  peculiar  province  of  the  slave  States. 
If  commerce  or  manufactures  had  been  the  subject  of  the  fair,  tho 
result  might  have  shown  even  a  greater  disproportion  in  favor  of  Free 
dom,  and  yet  there  would  have  been  some  excuse  for  Slavery,  for  it 
makes  no  pretensions  to  either  the  one  or  the  other ;  but  as  agriculture 
was  the  subject,  Slavery  can  have  no  excuse  whatever,  but  must  bear  nil 
the  shame  of  its  niggardly  and  revolting  impotence  ;  this  it  must  do  for 
the  reason  that  agriculture  is  its  special  and  almost  only  pursuit. 

The  Reports  of  the  Comptrollers  of  the  States  of  New  York  and 
North  Carolina,  for  the  year  1856,  are  now  before  us.  From  each 
report  we  have  gleaned  a  single  item,  which,  when  compared,  the  one 
with  the  other,  speaks  volumes  in  favor  of  Freedom  and  against  Slavery. 
"We  refer  to  the  average  value  per  acre  of  lands  in  the  two  States ;  let 
slaveholders  read,  reflect,  and  repent. 

In  1856,  there  were  assessed  for  taxation  in  the  State  cf 

NEW    YORK, 

Acres  of  land 30,080,000 

Valued  at $1,112,133,136 

Average  value  per  acre $30  07 

In  1856,  there  were  assessed  for  taxation  in  the  State  of 

NOKTH    CAROLINA, 

Acres  of  land 32.450.560 

Valued  at $98,800.036 

Average  vaiue  per  acre $3  OG 


FREE   FIGUKES   AND    SLAVE.  193 

It  is  difficult  for  us  to  make  any  remarks  on  the  official  facts  above. 
Our  indignation  is  struck  almost  dumb  at  this  astounding  and  revolting 
display  of  the  awful  wreck  that  slavery  is  leaving  behind  it  in  the 
South.  We  will,  however,  go  into  a  calculation  for  the  purpose  of 
ascertaining  as  nearly  as  possible,  in  this  one  particular,  how  much 
North  Carolina  has  lost  by  the  retention  of  slavery.  As  we  have 
already  seen,  the  average  value  per  acre  of  land  in  the  State  of  New 
York  is  $36  97  ;  in  North  Carolina  it  is  only  $3  06  ;  why  is  it  so  much 
less,  or  even  any  less,  in  the  latter  than  in  the  former  ?  The  answer  is, 
Slavery.  In  soil,  in  climate,  in  minerals,  in  water-power  for  manufac- 
tural  purposes,  and  in  area  of  territory,  North  Carolina  has  the  advan 
tage  of  New  York,  and,  with  the  exception  of  slavery,  no  plausible 
reason  can  possiblybe  assigned  why  land  should  not  be  at  least  as  valu 
able  in  the  valley  of  the  Yadkin  as  it  is  along  the  banks  of  the  Genesee. 

The  difference  between  $36  97  and  $3  06  is  $33  91,  which,  multiplied 
by  the  whole  number  of  acres  of  land  in  North  Carolina,  will  show,  in 
this  one  particular,  the  enormous  loss  that  freedom  has  sustained  on  ac 
count  of  slavery  in  the  Old  North  State.  Thus  : 

32,450,560  acres  a  $33  91 $1,100,398,489. 

Let  it  be  indelibly  impressed  on  the  mind,  however,  that  this  amount, 
large  as  it  is,  is  only  a  inoiety  of  the  sum  that  it  has  cost  to  maintain 
slavery  in  North  Carolina.  From  time  to  time,  hundreds  upon  hundreds 
of  millions  of  dollars  have  left  the  State,  either  in  search  of  profitable, 
permanent  investment  abroad,  or  in  the  shape  of  profits  to  Northern 
merchants  and  manufacturers,  who  have  become  the  moneyed  aristocracy 
of  the  country  by  supplying  to  the  South  such  articles  of  necessity,  util 
ity,  and  adornment,  as  would  have  been  produced  at  home  but  for  the 
pernicious  presence  of  the  peculiar  institution. 

A  reward  of  eleven  hundred  million  of  dollars  is  offered  for  the  con 
version  of  the  lands  of  North  Carolina  into  free  soil.  The  lands  them 
selves,  desolate  and  impoverished  under  the  fatal  foot  of  slavery,  offer  the 
reward.  How,  then,  can  it  be  made  to  appear  that  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  North  Carolina,  and,  indeed,  throughout  all  the  Southern 
States — for  slavery  is  exceedingly  inimical  to  them  all — is  not  demanded 
by  every  consideration  of  justice,  prudence,  and  good  sense?  In  1850, 
the  total  value  of  all  the  slaves  of  the  State  at  the  rate  of  four  hundred 
dollars  per  head,  amounted  to  less  than  one  hundred  and  sixteen  million 
of  dollars.  Is  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  sixteen  million  of  dollars 
more  desirable  than  the  sum  of  eleven  hundred  million  of  dollars?  When 
a  man  has  land  for  sale,  does  he  reject  thirty-six  dollars  per  acre  and 
take  three?  Non-slaveh  old  ing  whites!  look  well  to  your  interests! 
Many  of  you  have  lands  ;  comparatively  speaking,  you  have  nothing  else. 
Abolish  slavery,  and  you  will  enhance  the  value  of  every  league,  your 

9 


FREE    FIGUKES    AND    SLAVE. 

own  and  jour  neighbors',  from  three  to  thirty-six  dollars  per  acre.  Youi 
little  tract  containing  two  hundred  acres,  now  valued  at  the  pitiful  sum 
of  only  six  hundred  dollars,  will  then  be  worth  seven  thousand.  Your 
children,  now  deprived  of  even  the  meagre  advantages  of  common 
schools,  will  then  reap  the  benefits  of  a  collegiate  education.  Your  rivers 
and  smaller  streams,  now  wasting  their  waters  in  idleness,  will  then  turn 
the  wheels  of  multitudinous  mills.  Your  bays  and  harbors,  now  unknown 
to  commerce,  will  then  swarm  with  ships  from  every  enlightened  quar 
ter  cf  the  globe.  Non-slaveholding  whites !  look  well  to  your  interests ! 

"Would  the  slayeholders  of  North  Carolina  lose  anything  by  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  ?  Let  us  see.  According  to  their  own  estimate,  their 
slaves  are  worth,  in  round  numbers,  say,  one  hundred  and  twenty  mil 
lions  of  dollars.  There  are  in  the  State  twenty-eight  thousand  slave 
holders,  owning,  it  may  be  safely  assumed,  an  average  of  at  least  five 
hundred  acres  of  land  each — fourteen  million  of  acres  in  all.  Tins  num 
ber  of  acres,  multiplied  by  thirty-three  dollars  and  ninety-one  cents,  the 
difference  in  value  between  free  soil  and  slave  soil,  makes  the  enormous 
sum  of  four  hundred  and  seventy-four  million  of  dollars — showing  that 
by  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  slaveholders  themselves  would  realize  a 
net  profit  of  not  less  than  three  hundred  and  fifty-four  million  of  dollars. 

Not  long  since,  a  gentleman  in  Baltimore,  a  native  of  Maryland,  re 
marked  in  our  presence  that  he  was  an  abolitionist  because  he  felt  thai 
it  was  right  and  proper  to  be  one;  "but,"  inquired  he,  "  are  there  not, 
in  some  of  the  States,  many  widows  and  orphans  who  would  be  left 
in  destitute  circumstances,  if  their  negroes  were  taken  from  them  ?"  We 
replied  that  slavery  had  already  reduced  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
of  non-slaveholding  widows  and  orphans  to  the  lowest  depths  of  poverty 
and  ignorance,  and  that  w«e  did  not  believe  one  slaveholding  widow  and 
three  orphans  were  of  more,  or  even  of  as  much  consequence  as  five  non- 
slaveholding  widows  and  fifteen  orphans.  "You  are  right,"  exclaimed 
the  gentleman,  "  you  are  right,  I  had  not  viewed  the  subject  in  that  light 
before ;  I  perceive  you  go  in  for  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  num 
ber."  Of  course  we  were  right — we  do  go  in  for  the  greatest  good  to 
the  greatest  number. 

The  fact  is,  every  slave  in  the  South  costs  the  State  in  which  he  re 
sides  at  least  three  times  as  much  as  he,  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life, 
is  worth  to  his  master.  Slavery  benefits  no  one  but  its  immediate,  indi 
vidual  owners,  and  them  only  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  and  at  the 
sacrifice  of  the  dearest  rights  and  interests  of  the  whole  mass  of  non- 
slaveholders,  white  and  black.  Even  the  masters  themselves,  as  we  have 
already  shown,  would  have  been  far  better  off  without  it  than  with  it. 
To  all  classes  of  society  the  institution  is  a  curse ;  an  especial  curse  is  it 
to  those  who  own  it  not.  Non-slaveholding  whites!  look  -weM  to  you? 
interests  1 


CHAPTER    X. 

COMMEECIAL   CITIES — SOUTHEEX   COMMEECE. 

I?  great  improvements  are  seldom  to  be  expected  from  great  proprietors,  they  are  least  of 
all  to  be  expected  when  they  employ  slaves  for  their  workmen.  The  experience  of  all  ages 
and  nations,  I  believe,  demonstrates  that  the  work  done  by  slaves,  though  it  appears  to  cost 
only  their  maintenance,  is  in  the  end  the  dearest  of  any.  A  person  who  can  acquire  no 
property,  can  have  no  interest  but  to  eat  as  much,  and  to  labor  as  little  as  possible.  What 
ever  work  he  does  beyond  what  is  sufficient  to  purchase  his  own  maintenance,  can  be  squeezed 
out  of  him  by  violence  only,  and  not  by  any  interest  of  his  own. — ADAM  SMITH. 

OUE  theme  is  a  city — a  great  Southern  importing,  exporting  and 
manufacturing  city,  to  be  located  at  some  point  or  port  on  the  coast  of 
the  Carolinas,  Georgia  or  Virginia,  where  we  can  carry  on  active  com 
merce,  buy,  sell,  fabricate,  receive  the  profits  which  accrue  from  the  ex 
change  of  our  own  commodities,  open  facilities  for  direct  communication 
with  foreign  countries,  and  establish  all  those  collateral  sources  of  wealth, 
utility  and  adornment,  which  are  the  usual  concomitants  of  a  metropo 
lis,  and  which  add  so  very  materially  to  the  interest  and  importance  of 
a  nation.  Without  a  city  of  this  kind,  the  South  can  never  develop  her 
commercial  resources  nor  attain  to  that  eminent  position  to  which  those 
vast  resources  would  otherwise  exalt  her.  According  to  calculations 
based  upon  reasonable  estimates,  it  is  owing«to  the  lack  of  a  great  com 
mercial  city  in  the  South,  that  we  are  now  annually  drained  of  more 
than  One  Hundred  and  Twenty  Millions  of  Dollars !  We  should,  how 
ever,  take  into  consideration  the  negative  loss  as  well  as  the  positive. 
Especially  should  we  think  of  the  influx  of  emigrants,  of  the  visits  of 
strangers  and  cosmopolites,  of  the  patronage  to  hotels  and  public  halls, 
of  the  profits  of  travel  and  transportation,  of  the  emoluments  of  foreign 
and  domestic  trade,  and  of  numerous  other  advantages  which  have 
their  origin  exclusively  in  wealthy,  enterprising  and  densely  populated 
cities. 

Nothing  is  more  evident  than  the  fact,  that  our  people  have  never 
entertained  a  proper  opinion  of  the  importance  of  home  cities.  Blindly, 
and  greatly  to  our  own  injury,  we  have  contributed  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars  toward  the  erection  of  mammoth  cities  at  the  North,  while 
our  own  magnificent  bays  and  harbors  have  been  most  shamefully  dis 
regarded  and  neglected.  Now,  instead  of  carrying  all  our  moaey  to 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston  and  Cincinnati,  suppose  we  had  kept  it 

195 


196  COMMEKCIAl     CITIES SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 

on  the  south  side  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line — as  we  would  have  dout} 
had  it  not  been  for  slavery — and  had  disbursed  it  in  the  upbuilding  of 
Norfolk,  Beaufort,  Charleston  or  Savannah,  how  much  richer,  better, 
greater  would  the  South  have  been  to-day?  How  much  larger  and 
more  intelligent  would  have  been  our  population?  How  many  hundred 
thousand  natives  of  the  South  would  now  be  thriving  at  home,  instead 
of  adding  to  the  wealth  and  political  power  of  other  parts  of  the  Union? 
How  much  greater  would,  be  the  number  and  length  of  our  railroads, 
canals,  turnpikes  and  telegraphs?  How  much  greater  would  be  the 
extent  and  diversity  of  our  manufactures  ?  How  much  greater  would 
be  the  grandeur,  and  how  much  larger  would  be  the  number  of  our 
churches,  theatres,' schools,  colleges,  lyceums,  banks,  hotels,  stores  and 
private  dwellings?  How  many  more  clippers  and  steamships  would  we 
Lave  sailing  on  the  ocean,  how  vastly  more  reputable  would  we  be 
abroad,  how  infinitely  more  respectable,  progressive  and  happy  would  \ve 
be  at  home? 

That  we  may  learn  something  of  the  importance  of  cities  in  general, 
let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  great  capitals  of  the  world.  What 
would  England  be  without  London?  What  would  France  be  without 
Paris?  What  would  Turkey  be  without  Constantinople?  Or,  to  come 
nearer  home,  what  would  Maryland  be  without  Baltimore?  What 
would  Louisiana  be  without  New  Orleans?  What  would  South  Caro 
lina  be  without  Charleston  ?  Do  we  ever  think  of  these  countries  or 
States  without  thinking  of  their  cities  also?  If  we  want  to  learn  the 
news  of  the  country,  do  we  not  go  to  the  city,  or  to  the  city  papers? 
Every  metropolis  may  be  regarded  as  the  nucleus  or  epitome  of  the 
country  in  which  it  is  situated  ;  and  the  more  prominent  features  and 
characteristics  of  a  country,  particularly  of  the  people  of  a  country,  are 
almost  always  to  be  seen  within  the  limits  of  its  capital  city.  Almost 
invariably  do  we  find  the  bulk  of  the  floating  funds,  the  best  talent,  and 
the  most  vigorous  energies  of  a  nation  concentrated  in  its  chief  cities ; 
and  does  not  this  concentration  of  wealth,  energy  and  talent  conduce, 
in  an  extraordinary  degree,  to  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  a  nation? 
Unquestionably.  Wealth  develops  wealth,  energy  develops  energy, 
talent  develops  talent.  What,  then,  must  be  the  condition  of  those 
countries  which  do  not  possess  the  means  or  facilities  of  centralizing 
their  material  forces,  their  energies  and  their  talents?  Are  they  not 
destined  to  occupy  an  inferior  rank  among  the  nations  of  the  earth? 
Let  the  South  answer. 

And  now  let  us  ask,  and  we  would  put  the  question  particularly  (  M 
Southern  merchants,  what  do  we  so  much  need  as  a  great  Southern 
metropolis  ?  Merchants  of  the  South,  slaveholders !  you  are  the  avari 
cious  assassinators  of  your  country !  You  are  the  channels  through 
which,  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  dollars— 


COMMERCIAL   CITIES—  SOUTHERN    COMMERCE.  197 

$120,000,000 — are  annually  drained  from  the  South  and  conveyed  to 
the  North.  You  are  daily  engaged  in  the  unmanly  and  unpatriotic 
work  of  impoverishing  the  land  of  your  birth.  You  are  constantly 
enfeebling  our  resources  and  rendering  us  more  and  more  tributary  to 
distant  parts  of  the  nation.  Your  conduct  is  reprehensible,  base, 
criminal. 

Whether  Southern  merchants  ever  think  of  the  numerous  ways  in 
which  they  contribute  to  the  aggrandizement  of  the  North,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  they  enervate  and  dishonor  the  South,  has  for  many  years, 
with  us,  been  a  matter  of  more  than  ordinary  conjecture.  If,  as  it 
would  seem,  they  have  never  yet  thought  of  the  subject,  it  is  certainly 
desirable  that  they  should  exercise  their  minds  upon  it  at  once.  Let 
them  scrutinize  the  workings  of  Southern -money  after  it  passes  north  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  Let  them  consider  how  much  they  pay 
to  Northern  railroads  and  hotels,  how  much  to  Northern  merchants 
and  shopkeepers,  how  much  to  Northern  shippers  and  insurers,  how 
much  to  Northern  theatres,  newspapers,  and  periodicals.  Let  them 
also  consider  what  disposition  is  made  of  it  after  it  is  lodged  in 
the  hands  of  the  North.  Is  not  the  greater  part  of  it  paid  out  to 
Northern  manufacturers,  merchants,  and  laborers,  for  the  very  arti 
cles  which  are  purchased  at  the  North — and  to  the  extent  that  this  is 
done,  are  not  Northern  manufacturers,  mechanics,  and  laborers  directly 
countenanced  and  encouraged,  while,  at  the  same  time,  Southern  manu 
facturers,  mechanics,  and  laborers,  are  indirectly  abased,  depressed,  and 
disabled?  It  is,  however,  a  matter  of  impossibility,  on  these  small 
pages,  to  notice  or  enumerate  all  the  methods  in  which  the  money  we 
deposit  in  the  North  is  made  to  operate  against  us ;  suffice  it  to  say  that 
it  is  circulated  and  expended  there,  among  all  classes  of  the  people,  to 
the  injury  and  impoverishment  of  all  almost  every  individual  in  the 
South.  And  yet,  our  cousins  of  the  North  are  not,  by  any  means, 
blameworthy  for  availing  themselves  of  the  advantages  which  we  have 
voluntarily  yielded  to  them.  They  have  shown  their  wisdom  in  grow 
ing  great  at  our  expense,  and  we  have  shown  our  folly  in  allowing 
them  to  do  so.  In  this  respect,  Southern  merchants,  slaveholders,  and 
slavebreeders,  should  be  the  special  objects  of  our  censure;  they  ha"?e 
desolated  and  impoverished  the  South  ;  they  are  now  making  merchan 
dise  of  the  vitals  of  their  country.;  patriotism  is  a  word  nowhere 
recorded  in  their  vocabulary;  to\vn,  city,  country — they  care  for 
neither;  with  them,  self  is  always  paramount  to  every  other  con 
sideration. 

From  letters  received  in  1857,  from  the  mayors  of  eighteen  ol  our 
great  commercial  cities,  nine  free,  and  nine  slave,  which  letters  have 
been  published  in  all  the  book  editions  of  this  work,  we  present  the 
following  important  particulars : 


198 


COMMERCIAL    CITIES SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 


NINE  FREE  CITIES. 


Name. 

Population. 

Wealth. 

Wealth 

per  capita. 

New  York  

7(10,000 

$511,740,492 

$731 

Philadelphia         .            

500,000 

325,000,000 

650 

165,000 

249,162,500 

1,510 

Brooklyn     

225,000 

06,800,440 

425 

210,dOO 

88,810,734 

422 

Chicago 

112,000 

171,000,000 

1,527 

60,000 

58,004.516 

9(57 

Buffalo  

90,000 

45,474,476 

5"5 

New  Bedford  

•21.000 

•     27,047,000 

1,288 

2,083,000 

$1,572,100,153 

$754 

NINE  SLAVE  CITIES. 


Name. 

Population. 

Wealth. 

Wealth 
per  capita. 

Baltimore   

250,000 

$102,*  '53  ,839 

$403 

New  Orleans           

175,000 

91,188,195 

521 

St  Louis 

140,OiiO 

63,000,000 

450 

Charleston  

60,000 

86,127,751 

602 

Louisville  

70,000 

61,500,000 

450 

40,0(K) 

20,143.520 

503 

Norfolk  

17,000 

12,000,000 

705 

Savannah          

25,000 

11,999,015 

4SO 

10,000 

7,850,000 

785 

787,000 

$375  802,320 

$477 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the  slaves  themselves  are  valued  at  so 
much  per  head,  and  counted  as  part  of  the  wealth  of  slave  cities ;  and 
yet,  though  we  assent,  as  we  have  done,  to  the  inclusion  of  all  this  ficti 
tious  wealth,  it  will  he  observed  that  the  residents  of  free  cities  are  far 
wealthier,  per  capita,  than  the  residents  of  slave  cities.  The  reader,  we 
trust,  will  not  fail  to  examine  the  figures  with  great  care. 

In  this  age  of  the  world,  commerce  is  an  indispensable  element  of 
national  greatness.  Without  commerce  we  can  have  no  great  cities,  and 
without  great  cities  we  can  have  no  reliable  tenure  of  distinct  nationality. 
Commerce  is  the  forerunner  of  wealth  and  population ;  and  it  is  mainly 
these  that  make  invincible  the  power  of  undying  states. 

How  it  is,  in  this  enlightened  age,  that  men  of  ordinary  intelligence 
can  be  so  far  led  into  error  as  to  suppose  that  commerce,  or  any  other 
noble  enterprise,  can  be  established  and  successfully  prosecuted  under 
the  dominion  of  slavery,  is,  to  us,  one  of  the  most  inexplicable  of  mys 
teries.  Southern  Conventions,  composed  of  the  self-titled  lordlings  of 
slavery,  Generals,  Colonels,  Majors,  Captains,  and  Squires — may  act  out 
their  annual  programmes  of  farcical  nonsense  from  now  until  doomsday  ; 
but  they  will  never  add  one  iota  to  the  material,  moral,  or  mental  inter 
ests  of  the  South — never  can,  until  their  ebony  idol  shall  have  been 
utterly  demolished. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  but  one  not  at  all  surprising  to  those  whose 


COMMItRCIAL    CITIES SOUTHEKN    COMMERCE.  199 

philosophy  leads  them  to  think  aright,  that  Baltimore  and  St.  Louis,  the 
two  most  prosperous  cities  in  the  slave  States,  have  fewer  slaves  in  pro 
portion  to  the  aggregate  population  than  any  other  city  or  cities  in  the 
South.  While  the  entire  population  of  the  former  is  now  estimated  at 
250,000,  and  that  of  the  latter  at  140,000— making  a  grand  total  of 
890,000  in  the  two  cities,  less  than  0,000  of  this  latter  number  are  slaves; 
indeed,  neither  city  is  cursed  with  half  the  number  of  0,000. 

In  1850,  there  were  only  2,946  slaves  in  Baltimore,  and  2,056  in  St. 
Louis — total  in  the  two  cities,  5,602  ;  and  in  both  places,  thank  heaven, 
this  heathenish  class  of  the  population  was  rapidly  decreasing.  The 
census  of  1860  will,  in  all  probability,  show  that  the  two  cities  are  en 
tirely  exempt  from  slaves  and  slavery  ;  and  that  of  1880  will,  we  prayer 
fully  hope,  show  that  the  United  States  at  large,  at  that  time,  will  have 
been  wholly  redeemed  from  the  unspeakable  curse  of  human  bondage. 

What  about  Southern  commerce  ?  Is  it  not  almost  entirely  tributary 
to  the  commerce  of  the  North  ?  Are  we  not  dependent  on  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  Cincinnati,  for  nearly  every  article  of  mer 
chandise,  whether  foreign  or  domestic  ?  Where  are  our  ships,  our  mari- 
aers,  our  naval  architects?  Alas!  echo  answers  where? 

Header !  would  you  understand  how  abjectly  slaveholders  themselves 
are  enslaved  to  the  products  of  Northern  industry  ?  If  you  would,  fix 
v-our  mind  on  a  Virginia  gentleman — a  breeder,  buyer,  and  seller  of 
bipedal  black  cattle — who,  withal,  professes  to  be  a  Christian  !  Observe 
the  routine  of  his  daily  life.  See  him  rise  in  the  morning  from  a 
Northern  bed,  and  clothe  himself  in  Northern  apparel ;  see  him  walk 
across  the  floor  on  a  Northern  carpet,  and  perform  his  ablutions  out  of  a 
Northern  ewer  and  basin.  See  him  uncover  a  box  of  Northern  powders, 
and  cleanse  his  teeth  with  a  Northern  brush  ;  see  him  reflecting  his 
physiognomy  in  a  Northern  mirror,  and  arranging  his  hair  with  a 
Northern  comb.  See  him  dosing  himself  with  the  medicaments  of 
Northern  quacks,  and  perfuming  his  handkerchief  with  Northern  cologne. 
See  him  referring  to  the  time  in  a  Northern  watch,  and  glancing  at  the 
news  in  a  Northern  gazette.  See  him  and  his  family  sitting  in  Northern 
chairs,  and  singing  and  praying  out  of  Northern  books.  See  him  at  the 
breakfast  table,  saying  grace  over  a  Northern  plate,  eating  with  Northern 
cutlery,  and  drinking  from  Northern  utensils.  See  him  charmed  wills 
the  melody  of  a  Northern  piano,  or  musing  over  the  pages  of  a  Northern 
novel.  See  him  riding  to  his  neighbor's  in  a  Northern  carriage,  or  fur 
rowing  his  lands  with  a  Northern  plough.  See  him  lighting  his  cigar  with 
a  Northern  match,  and  flogging  his  negroes  with  a  Northern  lash.  See 
him  with  Northern  pen  and  ink,  writing  letters  on  Northern  paper,  and 
sending  them  away  in  Northern  envelopes,  sealed  with  Northern  wax, 
and  impressed  with  a  Northern  stamp.  Perhaps  our  Virginia  gentle 
man  is  a  merchant;  if  so,  see  him  at  hia  store,  making  an  unpatriotic 


200  COMMERCIAL    CITIES SOUTHERN    COMMERCE. 

nse  of  his  time  in  the  miserable  traffic  of  Northern  gimcracksand  haber 
dashery  ;  see  him  when  you  will,  where  you  will,  he  is  ever  surrounded 
with  the  industrial  products  of  those  whom,  in  the  strange  inconsistency 
of  his  heart,  he  execrates  as  enemies,  yet  treats  as  friends.  His  labors, 
his  talents,  his  influence,  are  all  for  the  North,  and  not  for  the  South. 
For  the  stability  of  slavery,  and  for  the  sake  of  his  own  personal  aggran 
dizement,  he  is  willing  to  sacrifice,  and  does  sacrifice,  the  dearest  inter 
ests  of  his  country. 

As  we  see  our  ruinous  system  of  commerce  exemplified  in  the  family 
of  our  Virginia  gentleman — a  branch  of  one  of  the  first  families,  of 
course ! — so  we  may  see  it  exemplified,  to  a  greater  or  lesser  degree,  in 
almost  every  other  family  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
elaveholding  States.  We  are  all  constantly  buying,  and  selling,  and 
wearing,  and  using  Northern  merchandise,  at  a  double  expense  to  both 
ourselves  and  our  neighbors.  If  we  but  look  at  ourselves  attentively, 
we  shall  find  that  we  are  all  clothed  cap-a-pie  in  Northern  habiliments. 
Our  hats,  our  caps,  our  cravats,  our  coats,  our  vests,  our  pants,  our 
gloves,  our  boots,  our  shoes,  our  uuder-garments — all  come  from  the 
North ;  whence,  too,  Southern  ladies  procure  all  their  bonnets,  plumes, 
and  flowers  ;  dresses,  shawls,  and  scarfs  ;  frills,  ribbons,  and  ruffles  ;  cuffs, 
capes,  and  collars. 

True  it  is  that  the  South  has  wonderful  powers  of  endurance  and  recuper 
ation  ;  but  she  cannot  forever  support  the  reckless  prodigality  of  her  sons. 
We  are  all  spendthrifts ;  some  of  us  should  become  financiers.  We  must 
learn  to  take  care  of  our  money  ;  we  should  withhold  it  from  the  North, 
and  open  avenues  for  its  circulation  at  home.  We  should  not  run  to 
New  York,  to  Philadelphia,  to  Boston,  to  Cincinnati,  or  to  any  other 
Northern  city,  every  time  we  want  a  shoe-string,  or  a  bedstead,  a  fish 
hook  or  a  hand-saw,  a  tooth-pick  or  a  cotton-gin.  In  ease  and  luxury 
we  have  been  lolling  long  enough ;  we  should  now  bestir  ourselves,  and 
keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  the  age.  We  must  expand  our  energies, 
and  acquire  habits  of  enterprise  and  industry ;  we  should  arouse  our 
selves  from  the  couch  of  lassitude,  and  inure  our  minds  to  thought  and 
our  bodies  to  action.  We  must  begin  to  feed  on  a  more  substantial  diet 
than  that  of  pro-slavery  politics;  we  should  leave  off  our  siestas  and 
post-meridian  naps,  and  employ  our  time  in  profitable  vocations. 
Before  us  there  is  a  vast  work  to  be  accomplished— a  work  which  has 
been  accumulating  on  our  hands  for  many  years.  It  is  no  less  a  work 
than  that  of  infusing  the  spirit  of  liberty  into  all  our  systems  of  com 
merce,  agriculture,  manufactures,  government,  literature,  and  religion 
Oligarchal  despotism  must  be  overthrown  ;  slavery  must  be  abolished. 


CHAPTER  XL 

!?  A  C  r  S     AND     ARGUMENTS     BY     TUB     WAYSIDE. 

Sl»veiyis  the  infringement  of  all  laws.  A  law  having  a  tendency  to  preserve  slavery 
would  be  the  grossest  sacrilege.  Man  to  be  possessed  by  his  fellow-man  ! — man  to  be  made 
property  of!  The  image  of  the  Deity  to  be  put  under  the  yoke  !  Let  these  usurpers  show 
us  their  title-deeds ! — BOLIVAR. 

FINDING  that  we  shall  have  to  leave  unsaid  a  great  many  things  which 
we  intended  to  say,  and  that  we  shall  have  to  omit  much  valuable 
matter,  the  product  of  other  pens  than  our  own,  but  which,  having  col 
lected  at  considerable  labor  and  expense,  we  had  hoped  to  be  able  to 
introduce,  we  have  concluded  to  present,  under  the  above  heading,  onh 
a  few  of  the  more  important  particulars. 

In  the  first  place,  we  will  give  an  explanation  of  the  reason 

WHY   THE   PRESENT   VOLUME   WAS  NOT   PUBLISHED   IN  BALTIMORE. 

A  considerable  portion  of  this  work  was  written  in  Baltimore ;  aud 
the  whole  of  it  would  have  been  written  and  published  there,  but  for  the 
following  odious  clause,  which  we  extract  from  the  Statutes  of  Maryland  : 

"  Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland,  That  after  the  passage  of 
this  act,  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  citizen  of  this  State,  knowingly  to  make, 
print,  or  engrave,  or  aid  in  the  making,  printing,  or  engraving,  within  this  State, 
any  pictorial  representation,  or  to  write  or  print,  or  to  aid  in  the  writing  or  printing 
any  pamphlet,  newspaper,  handbill  or  other  paper  of  an  inflammatory  character, 
and  having  a  tendency  to  excite  discontent,  or  stir  up  insurrection  amongst  the 
people  of  color  of  this  State,  or  of  either  of  the  other  States  or  Territories  of  the 
United  States,  or  knowingly  to  carry  or  send,  or  to  aid  in  the  carrying  or  sending 
the  same  for  circulation  amongst  the  inhabitants  of  either  of  the  other  States  or 
Territories  of  the  United  States,  and  any  person  so  offending  shall  be  guilty  of  a 
felony,  and  shall  on  conviction  be  sentenced  to  confinement  in  the  penitentiary  of 
this  State,  for  a  period  not  less  than  ten  nor  more  than  twenty  years,  from  the  time 
of  sentence  pronounced  on  such  person." — Act  passed  Dec  t831.  See  Id  Dwsey, 
page  1218. 

Now,  so  long  as  slaveholders  are  clothed  with  the  mantle  of  office,  so 
long  will  they  continue  to  make  laws,  like  the  above,  expressly  calcu 
lated  to  bring  the  non-slaveholding  whites  under  a  system  of  vassalage 
little  less  onerous  and  debasing  than  that  to  which  the  negroes  them 
selves  ;ire  accustomed.  What  wonder  is  it  that  there  is  no  native  litera 
ture  in  the  South  ?  The  South  can  never  have  a  literature  of  her  OWD 
until  after  slavery  shall  have  been  abolished.  Slaveholders  are  cither 
too  lazy  or  too  ignorant  to  write  it,  and  the  non-slaveholders — even  the 
few  whose  minds  are  cultivated  at  all — are  not  permitted  even  to  make 
the  attempt.  Down  with  the  oligarchy!  IneligiJbility  of  slaveholders-- 
never  another  vote  to  the  trafficker  in  human  flesh ! 

9*  2<>i 


FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY   THE   WAYSIDE. 


SLAVERY    THOUGHTFUL — SIGNS    OF    CONTRITION. 

The  real  condition  of  the  South  is  most  graphically  described  in  the 
following  doleful  admissions  from  the  Charleston  Standard  : 

"In  its  every  aspect,  our  present  condition  is  provincial.  "We  have  within  our 
limits  no  solitary  metropolis  of  interest  or  ideas — no  marts  of  exchange — no  radiat 
ing  centres  of  opinion.  Whatever  we  have  of  genius  and.  productive  energy,  goes 
freely  in  to  swell  the  importance  of  the  North.  Possessing  the  material  which  con 
stitutes  two-thirds  of  the  commerce  of  the  whole  country,  it  might  have  been  sup 
posed  that  we  could  have  influence  upon  the  councils  of  foreign  States;  but  we  are 
never  taken  into  contemplation.  It  might  have  been  supposed  that  England, 
bound  to  us  by  the  cords  upon  which  depend  the  existence  of  four  millions  of  her 
subjects,  would  be  considerate  of  our  feelings  ;  but  receiving  her  cotton  from  the 
North,  it  is  for  them  she  has  concern,  and  it  is  her  interest  and  her  pleasure  to 
reproach  us.  It  might  have  been  supposed,  that,  producing  the  material  which  is 
sent  abroad,  to  us  would  come  the  articles  that  are  taken  in  exchange  for  it;  but 
to  the  North  they  go  for  distribution,  and  to  us  are  parcelled  out  the  fabrics  that 
are  suited  to  so  remote  a  section. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  New  York  being  tributary  to  Norfolk,  Charleston,  Savan 
nah  or  New  Orleans,  these  cities  are  tributary  to  New  York.  Instead  of  the  mer 
chants  of  New  York  standing  cap  in  hand  to  the  merchants  of  Charleston,  the  mer 
chants  of  Charleston  stand  cap  in  hand  to  the  merchants  of  New  York.  Instead  of 
receiving  foreign  ships  in  Southern  waters,  and  calling  up  the  merchants  of  the 
country  to  a  distribution  of  the  cargo,  the  merchants  of  the  South  are  hurried  off 
to  make  a  distribution  elsewhere.  In  virtue  of  our  relations  to  a  greater  system, 
we  have  "' 
centre, 
boots, 

mats,  carriages,  jewelry,  cradles,  couches,  coffins,  by  the  thousand  and  hundreds  of 
thousands ;  but  they  scorn  to  live  amongst  us.  They  must  have  the  gaieties  and 
splendors  of  a  great  metropolis,  and  are  not  content  to  vegetate  upon  the  dim 
verge  of  this  remote  frontier. 

As  it  is  in  material  interests,  so  it  is  in  arts  and  letters — our  pictures  are  painted 
at  the  North,  our  books  are  published  at  the  North,  our  periodicals  and  papers  are 
printed  at  the  North.  We  are  even  fed  on  police  reports  and  villainy  from  the 
North.  The  papers  published  at  the  South  which  ignore  the  questions  at  issue 
between  the  sections  are  generally  well  sustained;  the  books  which  expose  the 
evils  of  our  institution  are  even  read  with  avidity  beyond  our  limits,  but  the  ideas 
that  are  turned  to  the  condition  of  the  South  are  intensely  provincial.  If,  as 
things  now  are,  a  man  should  rise  with  all  the  genius  of  Shakspeare,  or  Dickens,  or 
Fielding,  or  of  all  the  three  combined,  and  speak  from  the  South,  he  would  not 
receive  enough  to  pay  the  costs  of  publication.  If  published  at  the  South,  his 
book  would  never  be  seen  or  heard  of,  and  published  at  the  North  it  would  not  be 
read.  So  perfect  is  our  provincialism,  therefore,  that  enterprise  is  forced  to  the 
North  for  a  sphere — talent  for  a  market — genius  for  the  ideas  upon  which  to  work 
--indolence  for  ease,  and  the  tourist  for  attractions." 

This  extract  exhibits  in  bold  relief,  and  in  small  space,  a  large  number 
of  the  present  evils  of  past  errors.  It  is  charmingly  frank  and  truthful. 
De  Quincey's  "Confessions  of  an  Opium  Eater,"  are  nothing  to  it.  A 
distinguished  writer  on  medical  jurisprudence  informs  us  that  "  tlia 
knowledge  of  the  disease  is  half  the  cure  ; "  and  if  it  be  true,  as  perhaps 
it  is,  we  think  the  Standard  is  in  a  fair  way  to  be  reclaimed  from  the 
enormous  vices  of  pro-slavery  statism. 

FREE    LABOR   MOVEMENTS    IN    THE    SOUTH. 

Those  of  our  readers  who  share  with  us  the  conviction  that  one  of 
the  very  best  means  of  ridding  the  South  of  the  great  crime  and  curse 


FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    WAYSIDE. 


203 


of  slavery,  is,  by  a  system  of  thorough  organization  on  the  part  of  a 
considerable  number  of  individuals,  to  bring  Free  Labor  into  direct 
competition  with  Forced  Labor,  will  also  share  with  us  the  profound 
satisfaction  of  learning,  from  the  following  communication,  that  the 
united  efforts  of  gentlemen  of  noble  instincts  and  purposes  have  been 
eminently  successful  in  this  regard ;  and  that  the  future  is  glowing  with 
promises  of  grand  results  which  are  destined  soon  to  be  brought  about 
through  the  energy  and  patriotism  of  such  companies  and  corporations 
as  the  one  in  question  : 

"  OFFICE  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMIGRANT  AID  AND  HOMESTEAD  COMPANY,    ) 
No.  146  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK,  June  9Z/i,  1859.         \ 
"  H.  R.  HELPER,  ESQ.: 

"  DEAR  SIR:  In  fulfillment  of  my  promise,  I  will  try  to  give  you  an  outline  of 
the  object  and  operations  of  the  American  Emigrant  Aid  and  Homestead  Company. 
Your  '  Impending  Crisis  '  has  abundantly  demonstrated  the  fact,  that  land  in  the 
slave  States  is  valued,  purchased  and  sold  at  prices  many  times  less  than  the  same 
quality  of  land  will  command  in  the  free  States.  It  is  likewise  easy  to  show  that, 
in  the  border  slave  States,  counties  comparatively  free  are  worth  many  times  a8 
much  per  acre  as  land  of  the  same  quality  in  counties  cursed  with  the  incubus  of 
slavery. 

"  In  the  little  State  of  Delaware,  containing  only  three  counties,  nearly  all  the 
slaves  are  found  in  the  Southern  county  of  Sussex,  which  by  the  last  census  was 
appraised  at  $8  per  acre,  while  the  Northern  county  of  Newcastle,  without  slaves, 
was,  by  the  same  census,  appraised  at  over  $28  per  acre.  The  fact  above  stated 
is  also  very  clearly  shown  by  the  statistics  of  the  following  counties  in  Virginia: 


Name. 

Acres. 

Valuation. 

Val.  per  acre. 

Freemen. 

Slaves. 

Hancock  

49,7:9 

$1,181,512 

$23  75 

4047 

3 

52  441 

1  8  !  6  59  1 

25  10 

5  023 

81 

Ohio  

59  731 

2,025  951 

84  00 

17,842 

164 

Southampton  
G'-eenville  

8*5,691 

150  t'SS 

1.0(58,  li  -3 
427,  ITS 

8  01 
2  70 

7,766 
1  ,854 

5,755 
8,7S5 

"It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  comparatively  free  counties  here  given,  are  very 
hilly,  far  from  tide  water,  and  settled  within  the  last  fifty  or  sixty  years,  while  the 
slave  counties  have  a  beautiful,  gently  rolling  surface,  lie  near  tide  water,  and  the 
Unequalled  harbor  of  Norfolk,  and  have  had  the  advantage  of  cultivation  for  nearly 
two  hundred  years.  The  Homestead  Company,  looking  at  these  facts,  proposes 
Christian  colonization  in  the  border  slave  States,  not  by  single  or  separate  settle 
ment,  but  by  organized  emigration,  carrying  with  it  all  the  schools,  churches, 
habits  of  industry,  social  institutions,  and  elements  of  a  high  civilization  ;  and 
thus,  settling  large  tracts  by  united  and  sympathizing  companies  of  liberty  and 
Union-loving  men,  their  investments  are  quadrupled  in  value  by  the  mere  act  of 
settlement.  We  believe  there  is  no  department  of  human  enterprise  more  benefited 
by  system  and  cooperation,  than  that  of  emigration.  Our  experience  has  amply 
proved  that  this  plan  is  not  only  profitable  to  all  parties  concerned  as  a  financial 
operation,  but  that  it  furnishes  the  most  feasible  means  of  extending  the  Empire  of 
Freedom  and  genuine  Christianity,  and  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the  most  inviting  and 
beneficent  enterprises  of  the  age.  We  feel'  confident  that  our  movement  of  con 
certed  emigration  has  already  demontrated  the  truth  of  the  proposition,  that  free 
dom,  like  godliness,  'is  profitable  for  the  life  that  now  is,  as  well  as  that  which  is 
to  come  ;'  and  that  it  has  opened  an  easy,  practicable,  and  profitable  way  to  estab 
lish  free  institutions  in  all  the  border  slave  States. 

"Our  operations  have  been  thus  far  confined  principally  to  the  State  of  Virginia, 
and  the  results,  to  myself  have  been  highly  gratifying.  One  of  the^outgrowths  of 
our  enterprise,  has  been  the  establishment  of  freedom  of  speech.  During  the 
last  year  I  have  been  allowed  a  liberty  of  discussion  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
which,  in  1850,  would  have  demanded  my  blood  or  banishment.  Indeed,  in  the 
town-8  of  Western  Virginia  I  have  been  serenaded,  and  invited  to  public  entertain- 
moot*  -wid  to  make  addressss  upon  that  subject  so  lately  proscribed,  and  scarcely 


204  FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THE    WAYSIDE. 

breathed  without  incurring  the  penalty  of  exile  or  ostracism.    We  have  now,  ia 
Western  Virginia,  three  excellent  weekly  Republican  papers,  and  one  daily  and 
tri-weekly,  and  we  expect  shortly  to  welcome  several  others  to  the  ranks  of  free 
dom.    These  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  encouraging  results  of  our  experiment. 
u  la  the  cause  of  liberty  and  humanity, 
"  Yours  truly, 

"  JOHN  C.  UNDERWOOD." 

As  well  might  the  Oligarchy  attempt  to  stay  the  flux  and  reflux  of  the 
tides,  as  to  attempt  to  stay  the  progress  of  Freedom  in  the  South.  Ap 
proved  of  God,  the  edict  of  the  genius  of  Universal  Emancipation  has 
been  proclaimed  to  the  world,  and  nothing,  save  Deity  himself,  can 
possibly  reverse  it.  To  connive  at  the  perpetuation  of  slavery  is  to 
disobey  the  commands  of  heaven.  Not  to  be  an  Abolitionist,  is  to  be  a 
willful  and  diabolical  instrument  of  the  devil.  The  South  needs  to  be 
fres,  the  South  wants  to  be  free,  the  South  shall  be  free ! 

To  all  our  readers,  especially  to  our  Southern  readers,  we  cordially 
commend  the  following  list  of 

EEPUBLICAN    NEWSPAPERS    PUBLISHED    IN    THE    SLATE    STATES. 
ENGLISH. 

TJie  Missouri  Democrat St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

7ne  Free  South Newport,  Kentucky. 

The  Wheeling  Intelligencer Wheeling,  Virginia. 

Tue  Wellsburg  Herald Wellsburg,        " 

The  Ceredo  Crescent Ccredo,  " 

The  National  Era , Washington,  D.  C. 

The  Republic "'  " 

The  News  and  Advertiser , Milford,  Delaware. 


Der  Anzeiger  des  IVestens St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

Din  Westliche  Post " 

Das  Hermann  Wochenblatt Hermann, 

Der  St.  Charles  Demokrot St.  Charles, 

Die  Deutsche  Zeiiung St.  Joseph, 

Die  Missouri  Post Kansas  City, 

Der  Louisvillcr  Anzciger Louisville,  Kentucky. 

Der  Baltimore  Weckcr Baltimore,  Maryland. 

N on- slaveholders  of  the  South !  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  \o^ 
that  these  papers  should  be  well  sustained,  and  that  ample  encourage 
ment  should  be  given  for  the  establishment  of  others.  Patronize  «? 
many  of  them  as  you  can,  consistently  with  your  other  duties  and 
interests — subscribe  for  one  at  least — and  lose  no  opportunity  to  extern! 
their  circulation  among  your  neighbors.  Just  in  proportion  as  ti it- 
masses  are  enlightened  will  they  love  liberty  and  abhor  slavery. 

THE    ILLITERATE    POOR    WHITES    OF    THE    SOUTH. 

Had  we  the  power  to  sketch  a  true  picture  of  life  among  the  non- 
slaveholding  whites  of  the  South,  every  intelligent  man  who  has  a  spark 
of  philanthropy  in  his  breast,  and  who  should  happen  to  gaze  upon  the 
picfeure,  would  burn  with  unquenchable  indignation  at  that  system  of 


FACTS   AND   ARGUMENTS   BY   THE   WAYSIDE.  205 

African  slavery,  which  entails  unutterable  stupidity,  shiftlessness  and 
degradation  on  the  superior  race.  It  is  quite  impossible,  however,  to 
describe  accurately  the  miserable  condition  of  the  class  to  which  we 
refer.  Their  poverty,  their  ignorance  and  their  comparative  nothing 
ness,  as  a  power  in  the  State,  are  deplorable  in  the  extreme.  The  serfs 
of  "Russia  have  reason  to  congratulate  themselves  that  they  are  neither 
the  negroes  nor  the  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the  South.  Than  the 
latter  there  can  be  no  people  in  Christendom  more  unhappily  situated. 
Below  will  be  found  a  few  extracts  which  will  throw  some  light  on  the 
subject  now  under  consideration. 

In  an  address  which  he  delivered  before  the  South  Carolina  Institute. 
in  1851,  William  Gregg  says: 

;'  From  the  best  estimates  that  I  have  been  able  to  make,  I  put  dowii  the  white 
people  who  ought  to  work,  and  who  do  not,  or  who  are  so  employed  as  to  be 
wholly  unproductive  to  the  State,  at  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand^~Any 
man  who  is  an  observer  of  things  could  hardly  pass  through  our  country  without 
being  struck  with  the  fact,  that  all  the  capital,  enterprise  and  intelligence,  is  em 
ployed  in  directing  slave  labor;  and  the  consequence  is,  that  a  large  portion  of  our 
poor  white  people  are  wholly  neglected,  and  are  suffered  to  while  away  an  exist 
ence  in  a  state  but  one  step  in  advance  of  the  Indian  of  the  forest.  It  is  an  evil  of 
vast  magnitude,  and  nothing  but  a  change  in  public  sentiment  will  effect  its  cure. 
These  people  must  be  brought  into  daily  contact  with  the  rich  and  intelligent — they 
must  be  stimulated  to  mental  action,  and  taught  to  appreciate  education  and  the 
comforts  of  civilized  life  ;  and  this,  we  believe,  may  be  effected  only  by  the  intro 
duction  of  manufactures.  My  experience  at  Graniteville  has  satisfied  me  that  unless 
our  poor  people  can  be  brought  together  in  villages,  and  some  means  of  employ 
ment  afforded  them,  it  will  be  an  utterly  hopeless  effort  to  undertake  to  educate 
them.  We  have  collected  at  that  place  about  eight  hundred  people,  and  as  likely 
looking  a  set  of  country  girls  as  may  be  found — industrious  and  orderly  people — but 
deplorably  ignorant,  three-fourths  of  the  adults  not  being  able  to  read  or  to  write 
their  own  names. 

"  It  is  only  necessary  to  build  a  manufacturing  village  of  shanties,  in  a  healthy 
location,  in  any  part  of  the  State,  to  have  crowds  of  these  people  around  you,  seek 
ing  employment  at  half  the  compensation  given  to  operatives  at  the  North.  It  w 
indeed  painful  to  be  brought  in  contact  with  such  ignorance  and  degradation." 

Again,  lie  asks : 

"  Shall  we  pass  unnoticed  the  thousands  of  poor,  ignorant,  degraded  white  peo 
ple  among  us,  who,  in  this  land  of  plenty,  live  in  comparative  nakedness  and  star 
vation  ?  Many  a  one  is  reared  in  proud  South  Carolina,  from  birth  to  manhood, 
who  has  never  passed  a  month  in  which  he  has  not,  some  part  of  the  time,  been 
stinted  for  meat.  Many  a  mother  is  there  who  will  tell  you  that  her  children  are 
but  scantily  provided  with  bread,  and  much  more  scantily  with  meat ;  and,  if  they 
be  clad  with  comfortable  raiment,  it  is  at  the  expense  of  these  scanty  allowances  or 
foocl.  These  may  be  startling  statements,  but  they  are  nevertheless  true  ;  and  if  not 
believed  in  Charleston,  the  members  of  our  legislature  who  have  traversed  the  State 
ia  electioneering  campaigns,  can  attest  the  truth." 

Black  slave  labor,  though  far  less  valuable,  is  almost  invariably  better 
paid  than  free  white  labor.  The  reason  is  this :  the  fiat  of  the  oligarchy 
has  made  it  fashionable  to  "  have  negroes  around,"  and  there  are,  we 
are  grieved  to  say,  many  non-slaveholding  white  sycophants,  who,  in 
order  to  retain  on  their  premises  a  hired  slave  whom  they  falsely  ima 
gine  secures  to  them  not  only  the  appearance  of  wealth,  but  also  a  posi 
tion  of  high  social  standing  in  the  community,  keep  tliGmael  Te«  in  a  por- 
petual  strait. 


206  FACTS    AND    ARGUMENTS    BY    THK    WAYSIDE. 

In  the  spring  of  1856,  we  made  it  our  special  business  to  ascertain  the 
ruling  rates  of  wages  paid  for  labor,  free  and  slave,  in  Forth  Carolina, 
We  found  sober,  energetic  white  men,  between  twenty  and  forty  years 
of  age,  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  at  a  salary  of  $7  per  month — 
including  board  only ;  negro  men,  slaves,  who  performed  little  more 
than  half  the  amount  of  labor,  and  who  were  exceedingly  sluggish,  awk 
ward,  and  careless  in  all  their  movements,  were  hired  out  on  adjoining 
farms  at  an  average  of  about  $10  per  month,  including  board,  cloth 
ing,  and  medical  attendance.  Free  white  men  and  slaves  were  in  the 
employ  of  the  North  Carolina  Railroad  Company ;  the  former,  whose 
services,  in  our  opinion,  were  at  least  twice  as  valuable  as  the  Yttter, 
received  only  $12  per  month  each ;  the  masters  of  the  latter  received 
$16  per  month  for  every  slave  so  employed.  Industrious,  tidy  white 
girls,  from  sixteen  to  twenty  years  of  age,  had  much  difficulty  in  hiring 
themselves  out  as  domestics  in  private  families  for  $40  per  annum — 
board  only  included ;  negro  wenches,  slaves,  of  corresponding  ages,  so 
ungraceful,  stupid  and  filthy  that  no  decent  man  would  ever  permit  one 
of  them  to  cross  the  threshold  of  his  dwelling,  were  in  brisk  demand  at 
from  $65  to  $70  per  annum,  including  victuals,  clothes,  and  medical 
attendance.  These  are  facts,  and  in  considering  them,  the  students  of 
political  and  social  economy  will  not  fail  to  arrive  at  conclusions  of  their 
own. 

Notwithstanding  the  greater  density  of  population  in  the  free  States, 
labor  of  every  kind  is,  on  an  average,  about  one  hundred  per  cent,  higher 
there  than  it  is  in  the  slave  States.  This  is  another  important  fact,  and 
one  that  every  non-slaveholding  white  should  keep  registered  in  his 
mind. 

Poverty,  ignorance,  and  superstition,  are  the  three  leading  character 
istics  of  the  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the  South.  Many  of  them  grow 
up  to  the  age  of  maturity,  and  pass  through  life  without  ever  own 
ing  as  much  as  live  dollars  at  a  time.  Thousands  of  them  die  at  an 
advanced  age,  as  ignorant  of  the  common  alphabet  as  if  it  had  never 
been  invented.  All  are  more  or  less  impressed  with  a  belief  in  witches, 
ghosts,  and  supernatural  signs.  Few  are  exempt  from  habits  of  sensu 
ality  and  intemperance.  None  have  anything  like  adequate  ideas  of  the 
duties  which  they  owe  either  to  their  God,  to  themselves,  or  to  their 
fellow-men.  Pitiable,  indeed,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term,  is  their 
condition. 

It  is  the  almost  utter  lack  of  an  education  that  has  reduced  them  to 
their  present  unenviable  situation.  They  are  now  completely  under 
the  domination  of  the  oligarchy,  and  it  is  madness  to  suppose  that  they 
wiU  ever  be  able  to  rise  to  a  position  of  true  manhood,  until  after  the 
Blave  power  shall  have  been  utterly  overthrown. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SOUTHERN     LITEEATUKE. 

Meanwhile  a  change  was  proceeding,  infinitely  more  momentous  than  the  acquisition  or  loss 
of  any  province,  than  the  rise  or  fall  of  any  dynasty.  Slavery,  and  the  evils  by  which 
*lavery  is  everywhere  accompanied,  were  fast  disappearing. — MACAULAT. 

My  vo'ce  is  still  for  war. 

Gods  !  can  a  Roman  Senate  long  debate 

Which  of  the  two  to  choose,  slavery  or  death  ? 

****** 

A  day — an  hour  of  virtuous  Liberty 
Is  worth  a  whole  eternity  of  bondage  ! 

ADDISON. 

Write,  speak,  avenge,  for  ancient  sufferings  feel, 
Impale  each  tyrant  on  their  pens  of  steel, 
Declare  how  freemen  can  a  world  create, 
And  slaves  and  masters  ruin  every  State. 

BARLOW. 

IT  is  with  some  degree  of  hesitation  that  we  add  a  chapter  on  South 
ern  Literature — not  that  the  theme  is  inappropriate  to  this  work;  still 
less,  that  it  is  an  unfruitful  one ;  but  our  hesitation  results  from  our  con 
scious  inability,  in  the  limited  time  and  space  at  our  command,  to  do 
the  subject  justice.  Few,  except  those  whose  experience  has  taught 
them,  have  any  adequate  idea  of  the  amount  of  preparatory  labor  requi 
site  to  the  production  of  a  work  into  which  the  statistical  element  largely 
enters ;  especially  is  this  so,  when  the  statistics  desired  are  not  readily 
accessible  through  public  and  official  documents.  The  author  who 
honestly  aims  at  entire  accuracy  in  his  statements,  may  find  himself 
baffled  for  weeks  in  his  pursuit  of  a  single  item  of  information,  not  of 
much  importance  in  itself  perhaps,  when  separately  considered,  but 
necessary  in  its  connection  with  others,  to  the  completion  of  a 
harmonious  whole.  Not  unfrequently,  during  the  preparation  of  the 
preceding  pages,  have  we  been  subjected  to  this  delay  and  annoy 
ance. 

What  is  the  actual  condition  of  Literature  at  the  South  ?     Our  ques 
tion  includes  more  than  simple  authorship  in  the  various  departments  of 
letters,  from  the  compilation  of  a  primary  reader  to  the  production  of 
n  Scientific  or  Theological  Treatise.     We  comprehend  in  it  all  the  activi 
ties  engaged  in  tho  creation,  publication,  and  Bale  of  books  and  period 


208  SOUTHERN    LITEliATUKE. 

icals,  from  the  penny  primer  to  the  heavy  folio,  and  from  the  din^  /, 
coarse-typed  weekly  paper,  to  the  large,  well-filled  daily. 

Turning  our  attention  to  the  periodical  literature  of  the  South,  we 
obtain  these  results:  By  the  census  of  1850,  we  ascertain  that;  the 
entire  number  of  periodicals,  daily,  semi-weekly,  weekly,  semi-monthly, 
monthly  and  quarterly,  published  in  the  slave  Slates,  including  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  were  seven  hundred  and  twenty-two.  These  had  an 
aggregate  yearly  circulation  of  ninety-two  million  one  hundred  and 
sixty-seven  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  (92,167,129).  The 
number  of  periodicals,  of  every  class,  published  in  the  non-slaveholding 
States  (exclusive  of  California)  was  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
ninety-three,  with  an  aggregate  yearly  circulation  of  three  hundred  and 
thirty-three  million  three  hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand  and  eighty- 
one  (333,386,081). 

Nearly  nine  years  have  elapsed  since  these  statistics  were  taken, 
and  these  nine  years  have  wrought  an  immense  change  in  the  jour 
nalism  of  the  North,  without  any  corresponding  change  in  that  of 
the  South.  It  is  noteworthy  that,  as  a  general  thing,  the  principal 
journals  of  the  free  States  are  more  comprehensive  in  their  scope,  more 
complete  in  every  department,  and  enlist,  if  not  a  higher  order  of  talent, 
at  least  more  talent,  than  they  did  nine  years  ago.  This  improvement 
extends  not  only  to  the  metropolitan,  but  to  the  country  papers  also. 
In  fact,  the  very  highest  literary  ability,  in  finance,  in  political  economy, 
in  science,  in  statism,  in  law,  in  theology,  in  medicine,  in  belles-let 
tres,  is  laid  under  contribution  by  the  journals  of  the  non-slavehold 
ing  States.  This  is  true  only  to  a  very  limited  degree  of  Southern  jour 
nals.  Their  position,  with  but  few  exceptions,  is  substantially  the  same 
that  it  was  ten  years  ago.  They  are  neither  worse  nor  better — the 
imbecility  and  inertia  which  attaches  to  everything  which  slavery 
touches,  clings  to  them  now  as  tenaciously  as  it  did  when  Henry  A. 
Wise  thanked  God  for  the  paucity  of  newspapers  in  the  Old  Dominion, 
and  the  platitudes  of  Father  Eitchie  were  recognized  as  the  political 
gospel  of  the  South.  They  have  not,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  increased 
materially  in  number,  nor  in  the  aggregate  of  their  yearly  circulation. 
In  the  free  States  no  week  passes  that  does  not  add  to  the  number  of 
their  journals,  and  extend  the  circle  of  their  readers  and  their  influence. 
Since  the  census  tables  to  which  we  have  referred  were  prepared,  two 
of  the  many  excellent  weekly  journals  of  which  the  city  of  New  York 
can  boast,  have  sprung  into  being,  and  attained  an  aggregate  circu 
lation  more  than  twice  as  large  as  that  of  the  entire  newspaper  press 
of  Virginia  in  1850 — and  exceeding,  by  some  thousands,  the  aggregate 
circulation  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  journals  of  which  Alabama, 
Arkansas,  Kentucky,  Georgia,  North  Carolina  and  Florida,  could  boast 
at.  the  time  above-mentioned. 


SOUTHERN    LITERATURE. 


209 


Facts  of  great  interest  and  importance  appertaining  to  the  two  most 
widely  circulated  and  influential  journals  in  America — perhaps  we 
might,  with  propriety,  say  in  the  world — will  be  found  in  the  following 
carefully -prepared  tabular  statement : 

T^B  IL,  EJ      33. 

AGGREGATE  CIRCULATION  OF  THE  DAILY,  SEMI- WEEKLY,  AND  WEEKLY  NEW 
YORK  TRIBUNE,*  APRIL  25,  1859,  AND  OP  THE  DAILY  NEW  YORK  HERALD.t 
ATGUST  2,  1856. 


Herald. 


Free  States. 

ZV0MM. 

California 2,431 

Connecticut 8,638 2,146 

Illinois 12,769  858 

Indiana 10,098 36 

Iowa 7,523 49 

Maine 7,677 58 

Massachusetts 8,154 1,058 

Michigan 9,264 256 

New  Hampshire 6,239 139 

New  Jersey 5,477 3,330 

New  York 65,186 47,275 

Ohio 19,740 200 

Pennsylvania 15,292 2,510 

Rhode"lsland 2,151 322 

Vermont    8,242 135 

Wisconsin 8,042 38 


Totals 196,923 58,410 


Slave  States. 
Tribune. 

Alabama    51 

Arkansas 10 

Delaware 253. 

Florida 41 . 

Georgia 78. 

Kentucky 548 68 

Louisiana 108  85 

Maryland 457 1,153 

Mississippi 15 


Herald. 
..        80 

'."  235 
45 
170 


Missouri ;....  633 

North  Carolina 57 

South  Carolina 45 

Tennessee 807 

Texas ,    132 

Virginia 375 

District  of  Columbia...     .    130 


41 
44 

42 
5 

176 
317 


Totals 3,240 2,611 


Throughout  the  non-si aveholding  States,  the  newspaper  or  magazine 
that  has  not  improved  during  the  last  decade  of  years,  is  an  exception  to 
the  general  rule.  Throughout  the  entire  slaveholding  States,  the  news 
paper  or  magazine  that  has  improved  during  that  time,  is  no  less  an 
exception  to  the  general  rule  that  there  obtains.  Outside  of  the  larger 
cities  of  the  South,  there  are  not,  probably,  half  a  dozen  newspapers  in 
the  whole  slaveholding  region  that  can  safely  challenge  a  comparison 
with  the  country  press  of  the  North.  What  that  country  press  was 
twenty  years  ago,  the  country  press  of  the  South  is  now. 

The  self-stultification  of  folly,  was  never  more  evident  than  it  is 
in  the  current  gabfele  of  the  Oligarchs  about  a  Southern  literature. 
They  do  not  mean  by  it  a  healthy,  manly,  moral  utterance  of  unfettered 
minds,  without  which  there  can  be  no  proper  literature ;  but  an  emascu 
lated  substitute  therefor,  from  which  the  element  of  freedom  is  elimi 
nated  ;  husks,  from  which  the  kernel  has  escaped — a  body,  from  which 
the  vitalizing  spirit  has  fled — a  literature  which  ignores  manhood  by 
confounding  if  with  bruteh  ood  ;  or,  at  best,  deals  with  all  similes  of 
freedom  as  treason  against  the  "peculiar  institution."  There  is  not  a 
single  great  name  in  the  literary  annals  of  the  old  or  new  world  that 
could  dwarf  itself  to  the  stature  requisite  to  gain  admission  into  the 


*  See  THE  TRIBUNE  of  April  25th  and  27th,  1859. 
t  See  THE  HERALD  of  August  6th,  1856. 


210  SOUTHERN"   LITERATURE. 

Pantheon  erected  by  these  devotees  of  the  Inane  for  their  Lilliputian 
deities.  Thank  God,  a  Southern  literature,  in  the  sense  intended  by 
the  champions  of  slavery,  is  a  simple  impossibility,  rendered  such,  by 
that  exility  of  mind  which  they  demand  in  its  producers  as  a  prerequi 
site  to  admission  into  the  guild  of  Southern  authorship.  The  tenuous 
thoughts  of  such  authorlings  could  not  survive  a  single  breath  of  manly 
criticism.  The  history  of  the  rise,  progress  and  decline  of  their  litera 
ture  could  be  easily  written  on  a  child's  smooth  palm,  and  leave  space 
enough  for  its  funeral  oration  and  epitaph.  The  latter  might  appropri 
ately  be  that  which,  in  one  of  our  rural  districts,  marks  the  grave  of  a 

still-born  infant : 

"  If  so  early  I  am  done  for, 
I  wonder  what  I  was  begun  for." 

We  desire  to  see  the  South  bear  its  just  proportion  in  the  literary 
activities  and  achievements  of  our  common  country.  It  has  never  yet 
done  so,  and  it  never  will  until  its  own  manhood  is  vindicated  in  the 
abolition  of  slavery.  The  impulse  which  such  a  measure  would  give  to 
all  industrial  pursuits  that  deal  with  the  elements  of  material  prosperity, 
would  be  imparted  also  to  the  no  less  valuable  but  more  intangible  cre 
ations  of  the  mind.  Take  from  the  intellect  of  the  South  the  incubus 
which  no\v  oppresses  it,  and  its  rebound  would  be  glorious  ;  the  era  of 
its  diviner  inspirations  would  begin  ;  and  its  triumphs  would  be  a  per 
petual  vindication  of  the  superiority  of  free  institutions  over  those  of 
slavery. 

The  people  of  the  South  are  not  a  reading  people.  Many  of  the 
adult  population  never  learned  to  read ;  still  more,  do  not  care  to  read. 
We  have  been  impressed,  during  a  temporary  sojourn  in  the  North,  with 
the  difference  between  the  middle  and  laboring  classes  in  the  free  States, 
and  the  same  classes  in  the  slave  States,  in  this  respect.  Passing  along 
the  great  routes  of  travel  in  the  former,  or  taking  our  seat  in  the  com 
fortable  cars  that  pass  up  and  down  the  avenues  of  our  great  commer 
cial  metropolis,  we  have  not  failed  to  contrast  the  employment  of  our 
fellow-passengers  with  that  which  occupies  the  attention  of  the  corres 
ponding  classes  on  our  various  Southern  routes  of  travel.  In  the  one 
case,  a  large  proportion  of  the  passengers  seem  intent  upon  mastering 
the  contents  of  the  newspaper,  or  some  recently  published  book.  The 
merchant,  the  mechanic,  the  artisan,  the  professional  man,  and  even  the 
common  laborer,  going  to  or  returning  from  their  daily  avocations,  are 
busy  with  their  morning  and  evening  paper,  or  engaged  in  an  intelligent 
discussion  of  some  topic  of  public  interest.  This  is  their  leisure  hour, 
and  it  is  given  to  the  acquisition  of  such  information  as  may  be  of  im 
mediate  or  ultimate  use,  or  to  the  cultivation  of  a  taste  for  elegant  litera 
ture.  In  the  other  case,  newspapers  and  books  seem  generally  ignored, 
and  noisy  discussions  of  village  and  State  politics,  the  tobacco  and  cotton 


SOUTHERN    LITEKATURE. 


211 


crops,  filibusterism  in  Cuba,  Nicaragua,  or  Sonora,  the  price  of  negroes 
generally,  and  especially  of  "fine-looking  wenches,'1  the  beauties  of 
lynch-law,  the  delights  of  horse-racing,  the  excitement  of  street  fights 
with  bowie-knives  and  revolvers,  the  "manifest  destiny"  theory  that 
justifies  the  stealing  of  all  territory  contiguous  to  our  own,  and  kin 
dred  topics,  constitute  the  warp  and  woof  of  conversation. 

What  follows,  our  readers  will,  we  think,  agree  with  us,  is  of  great 
significance  in  this  connection  : 

TAJBILK    34. 

NUMBER  OP  PUBLIC  DOCUMENTS  FRANKED  BY  UNITED  STATES  SENATORS*— 185a 

FREE  STATE  SENATORS.  SLATE  STATE  SENATORS. 


State. 

Nan-     |    ^ 

Total 

State. 

Name. 

Docu 
ments. 

Total. 

California  

Broderick     18,000  f 
Gwin  19,000  f 

37,500 

Alabama  .   ... 

Fitzpatrick 
Clay  

1,500  / 
11,500  j 

13,000 

Connecticut... 

Foster  7,000  ( 
Dixon  j 

7,000 

Arkansas  

Sebastian, 
.lohnson. 

2,000  / 
8,000  \ 

10,000 

Illinois  

Douglas.  .  .  345,000  ? 
Trumbull.    40,000  > 

385,000 

Delaware.   ... 

Hates  
Bayard. 

\ 

Indiana  

Fitch  11,000) 

26,000 

Florida  

Mallory  .  . 

Y, 

6,000  {. 

8,000 

Bright  .  .  .    15,000  j 

ulee  .... 

2,000  j 

Iowa        .    ... 

Jones..   ..      4,OD()  > 

14,000 

Georg'a  

Iverson.  .  . 

8,000  | 

5,000 

Harlan.  ..    10,000  £ 

Toombs.  .  . 

2,000  j 

Maine 

Fessenden    14,000  [ 

24,000 

Kentucky..  .  . 

Thompson 

I 

10,000 

Harnlin  .  .     10,000  f 

Crittenden 

10,000  f 

Massachusetts. 

Wilson  i 

Sumner...      1,000  \ 

1,000 

Louisiana.   .. 

Benjamin. 
Slidell.... 

11,000  » 

8,000  f 

19,000 

Michigan  

Stuart   .  .  .    49,000 
Chandler  .  214,000  f 

263,000 

Maryland  

Pearce  .  .  . 

Kennedy. 

G,OHO  ' 
5,000  f 

11,000 

N.  Hampshire. 

Hale  14,000) 
Clark  51,000  f 

66,000 

Mississippi  

Brown  
Davis  

18,000 
0,000  ) 

24,000 

New  Jersey.  .. 

Wright  .  .  .      7,000  | 
Thompson      I,0ii0  f 

8,000 

Missouri  

Green.  .  .  . 
Polk  

12,000  | 
15,000  ) 

27,000 

New  York  

Seward...     81,000  ( 
King  19,000  f 

100,000 

N.  Carolina... 

Reid  
Clingman. 

1,000  i 
21,500  f 

22,500 

Ohio 

PugSi  4,000  i 

6,000 

B.  Carolina.   .  . 

Evans  

I 

Wade  2,000  j 

Hammond 

f 

Pennsylvania. 

Bigler  ....    54,000  j 
Cameron  .    10,000  f 

64,000 

Tennessee  

Bell  
Johnson.  . 

7,000  i 
11,000  j 

18,000 

Rhode  Island. 

Allen  3(10  j 

2,800 

Texas  

Houston.  . 

5,000  | 

5,000 

Simmons.  .      2,500  J" 

Henderson 

f 

Vermont  

Collamer  .      3,000  i 
Foot  2,000  ( 

5,000 

Virginia  

Mason  
Hunter.  .  . 

2,000  / 
2,000  ) 

4,000 

Wisconsin  

Durkee...      6,500* 
Doolittle  .      4  000  f 

10,000 

Total 

176,500 

Total 

1  019  800 

Thus  we  perceive  by  the  above  table,  that,  while  thirty-two  Free  State 
Senators  send  1,019,800  documents — an  average  of  31,860  each,  thirty 
Slave  State  Senators  send  only  176,500  documents — an  average  of  b'U 
5,883  each,  showing  an  average  balance  of  25,986  in  favor  of  every 

*  See  debate  on  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  Post-office  bill,  to  increase  the  rates  of 
postage,  in  the  United  States  Senate,  February  24,  1S59.  Senators  from  the  slave  States 
strongly,  but  unsuccessfully,  advocated  the  passage  of  the  amendment.  _Thanks  to  the  free 
State  Senators,  who  opposed  and  defeated  it !  On  account  of  the  pitiable  poverty  :ir:<l 
ignorance  of  slavery,  as  is  shown  in  a  preceding  tabl-e,  the  mails  were  transported  through 
out  the  Southern  States,  during  the  year  1855,  at  an  extra  cost  to  the  General  Government 
of  more  than  six  hundred  thousand  dollars  !  In  the  free  States,  duriug  the  same  period, 
postages  were  received  to  the  amount  of  more  than  two  million  of  dollars  over  and  ihov » 
the  cost  of  transDort;if.ion  ! 


212 


SOUTHERN    LITERATURE. 


Free  State  Senator!  Thus  do  the  lazy  pro-slavery  officials  of  the  South 
perpetuate  the  ignorance  and  degradation  of  their  constituents,  by  with 
holding  from  them — especially  from  their  miserably-duped  non-slave- 
holding  constituents — the  means  of  information  to  which  they  are  justly 
entitled,  and  which  they  would  receive,  if  represented  by  men  whose 
sense  of  duty  and  honor  was  not  irremediably  debased  by  social  contact 
with  slaves  and  slavery. 

The  proportion  of  white  adults  over  twenty  years  of  age,  in  each 
State,  who  cannot  read  and  write,  to  the  whole  white  population,  is  as 
follows : 


Connecticut  

1  to  e 

very  568 
473 
310 
1G6 
108 
97 
67 
68 
56 
50 
43 
18 
17 

Louisiana  

1 

Vermont 

1 

Maryland 

1 

1 

Mississipni        .  . 

1 

Massachusetts 

1 

Delaware 

.  .  1 
1 

Maine 

.    .  .  1 

South  Carolina 

Michigan  

1 

Missouri 

1 

Rhode  Island 

1 

Alabama  

Kentucky 

..  1 

1 

New  Jersey 

.  .  1 

New  York  ...       .   . 

1 

Georgia      

1 

Pennsylvania  

1 

Virginia  

1 

Ohio 

1 

Arkansas 

1 

Indiana  

1 

Tennessee 

1 

Illinois... 

..  1 

North  Carolina.  .  , 

,.  1 

1  to  every 


27 

20 

18 

17 

16 

15 

13J 

13 

124 

Hi 
11 

7 


In  the  slave  States  the  proportion  of  free  white  children,  between  the 
ages  of  five  and  twenty,  who  are  found  at  any  school  or  college,  is  not 
quite  one-fifth  of  the  whole ;  in  the  free  States,  the  proportion  is  more 
than  three-fifths. 

We  could  fill  our  pages  with  facts  like  these  to  an  almost  indefinite 
extent,  but  it  cannot  be  necessary.  No  truth  is  more  demonstrable, 
nay,  no  truth  has  been  more  abundantly  demonstrated,  than  this :  that 
slavery  is  hostile  to  general  education ;  its  strength,  its  very  life,  is  in 
the  ignorance  and  stolidity  of  the  masses ;  it  naturally  and  necessarily 
represses  general  literary  culture.  A  free  press  is  an  institution  almost 
unknown  at  the  South.  Free  speech  is  considered  as  treason  against 
slavery :  and  when  people  dare  neither  speak  nor  print  their  thoughts, 
free  thought  itself  is  well-nigh  extinguished.  All  that  can  be  said  in 
defence  of  human  bondage  may  be  spoken  freely,  but  question  either  its 
morality  or  its  policy,  and  the  terrors  of  Lynch-law  are  at  once  invoked 
X)  put  down  the  pestilent  heresy.  The  legislation  of  the  slave  States 
for  the  suppression  of  the  freedom  of  speech  and  the  press,  is  disgraceful 
and  cowardly  to  the  last  degree,  and  can  find  its  parallel  only  in  the 
meanest  and  bloodiest  despotisms  of  the  old  world.  No  institution  that 
could  bear  the  light  would  thus  sneakingly  seek  to  burrow  itself  in  utter 
darkness.  Look,  too,  at  the  mobbings,  lynchings,  robberies,  social  and 
political  proscriptions,  and  all  manner  of  nameless  outrages,  to  which 
men  in  the  South  have  been  subjected,  simply  upon  the  suspicion  that 
they  were  the  enemies  of  slavery.  We  could  fill  page  after  page  of  this 


SOUTHERN    LITERATURE.  213 

volume  with  the  record  of  such  atrocities.  But  a  simple  reference  to 
them  is  enough.  Our  countrymen  have  not  yet  forgotten  why  John  0 
Underwood  was,  but  a  short  while  since,  banished  from  his  home  in 
Virginia,  and  the  accomplished  Hedrick  driven  from  his  college  pro 
fessorship  in  North  Carolina.  They  believed  slavery  inimical  to  the 
best  interest  of  the  South,  and  for  daring  to  give  expression  to  this  belief 
in  moderate  yet  manly  language,  they  were  ostracized  by  the  despotic 
slave  power,  and  compelled  to  seek  a  refuge  from  its  vengeance  in  States 
where  the  principles  of  freedom  are  better  understood.  Pending  the 
last  Presidential  election,  there  were  thousands,  nay,  tens  of  thousands 
of  voters  in  the  slave  States,  who  desired  to  give  their  suffrages  for  the 
Republican  nominee,  John  0.  Fremont,  himself  a  Southron,  but  a  non- 
slaveholder.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  guaranteed  to  these 
men  an  expression  of  their  preference  at  the  ballot-box.  But  were 
they  permitted  such  an  expression  ?  Not  at  all.  They  were  denounced, 
threatened,  overawed,  by  the  slave  power — and  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say,  that  there  was  really  no  Constitutional  election — that  is,  no  such 
free  expression  of  political  preferences  as  the  Constitution  aims  to  secure 
— in  a  majority  of  the  slave  States. 

From  a  multiplicity  of  facts  like  these,  the  inference  is  unavoidable, 
that  slavery  tolerates  no  freedom  of  the  press,  no  freedom  of  speech,  no 
freedom  of  opinion.  To  expect  that  a  whole-souled,  manly  literature 
can  flourish  under  such  conditions,  is  as  absurd  as  it  would  be  to  look 
fbr  health  amid  the  pestilential  vapors  of  a  dungeon. 

The  truth  is,  slavery  destroys,  or  vitiates,  or  pollutes,  whatever  it 
touches.  No  interest  of  society  escapes  the  influence  of  its  clinging 
curse.  It  makes  Southern  religion  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  Christen 
dom — it  makes  Southern  politics  a  libel  upon  all  the  principles  of  Repub 
licanism — it  makes  Southern  literature  a  travesty  upon  the  honorable 
profession  of  letters.  Than  the  better  class  of  Southern  authors  them 
selves,  none  will  feel  more  keenly  the  truth  of  our  remarks.  They 
write  books,  but  can  find  for  them  neither  publishers  nor  remunera 
tive  sales  at  the  South.  The  executors  of  Calhoun  seek,  for  his  works,  a 
Northern  publisher.  Benton  writes  history  and  prepares  voluminous 
compilations,  which  are  given  to  the  world  through  a  Northern  pub 
lisher,  feimms  writes  novels  and  poems,  and  they  are  scattered  abroad 
from  the  presses  of  Northern  publishers.  Eighty  per  cent,  of  all  the 
copies  sold  are  probably  bought  by  Northern  readers. 

Our  limits,  not  our  materials,  are  exhausted.  We  would  gladly  say 
more,  but  can  only,  in  conclusion,  add  as  the  result  of  our  investigations 
in  this  department  of  our  subject,  that  Literature  and  Liberty  are  inse 
parable  ;  the  one  can  never  have  a  vigorous  existence  without  being 
wedded  to  the  other. 


SOUTHEBN    LITEEATUEE. 

Our  work  is  done.  It  is  the  voice  of  the  non-slaveholding  whites  of 
the  South,  through  one  identified  with  them  by  interest,  by  feeling,  by 
position.  That  voice,  by  whomsoever  spoken,  must  yet  be  heard  and 
heeded.  The  time  hastens — the  doom  of  slavery  is  written — the  redemp 
tion  of  the  South  draws  nigh. 

In  taking  leave  of  our  readers,  we  know  not  how  we  can  give  more 
forcible  expression  to  our  thoughts  and  intentions  than  by  saying  that, 
in  concert  with  the  intelligent  free  voters  of  the  North,  we,  the  non- 
slaveholding  whites  of  -the  South,  desire  and  expect  to  elevate  to  the 
Presidency,  in  I860,  an  able  and  worthy  representative  of  the  great 
principles  enunciated  in  the  Republican  platform  adopted  at  Philadel 
phia  in  1856 ;  and  that,  forever  thereafter,  we  will,  if  we  can,  by  our  suf 
frages,  hold  the  Presidential  chair,  and  other  high  official  positions  in  the 
Federal  Government,,  sacredly  intact  from  the  occupancy  and  pollution 
of  Pro-Slavery  demagogues,  whether  from  the  North  or  from  the  South  : 
and  furthermore,  that  if,  in  any  case,  the  Oligarchs  do  not  quietly  sub 
mit  to  the  will  of  a  constitutional  majority  of  the  people,  as  expressed 
at  the  ballot-box,  the  first  battle  between  Freedom  and  Slavery  will  be 
fought  at  home — and  may  God  defend  the  Right ! 


rss 


JUST   PUBLISHED. 


PRESIDENTIAL  CANDIDATES. 

CONTAINING  SKETCHES 

BIOGRAPHICAL,  PERSONAL  AND   POLITICAL, 

Of  21  Prominent  Candidates  for  the  Presidency  iu  1860, 

One  vol.,  12mo.,  Cloth.     Price,  $1  00. 


This  work  contains  accurate  and  life-like  sketches  of  the  leading  PRESIDENTIAL 
CANDIDATES,  so  that  any  one  can,  at  a  glance,  ascertain  the  position  of  the  leading 
statesmen  on  ALL  THE  GREAT  ISSUES  OF  THE  DAY,  thus  making  the  book  not  only 
interesting  for  its  biographies,  but  reliable  for  its  facts.  It  is  impartial  as  between 
men  and  parties. 

OIPIIN'IOISrS     Oin     THE     JPRESS. 
From  the  Evening  Post,  New  York. 

"These  Biographies  appear  to  be  unusually  accurate,  as  well  as  as  readable. 
Copious  and  pertinent  extracts  from  the  speeches  and  writings  of  each  of  the 
candidates  are  inserted,  giving  a  clear  view  of  their  position  on  all  the  main 
political  issues  of  the  day.  The  book  will  form  a  convenient  and  useful  political 
manual." 

From  the  New  York  Sun. 

"  The  book  has  the  merit  of  presenting  considerable  information,  in  a  compact 
shape,  in  a  form  easily  preserved,  and  useful  for  reference.  For  these  reasons, 
the  book  will  obtain  a  large  circulation." 

From  the  Daily  Courant,  Hartford,  Conn. 
"  The  sketches  are  well  drawn,  and  the  book  is  an  interesting  one." 

From  the  Ohio  Daily  State  Journal. 

•'  To  publish  this  volume  at  the  present  time,  was  enterprise,  which  we  trust 
will  prove  as  profitable  to  the  publisher,  as  we  are  sure  it  will  to  the  public. 
People  want  to  know  the  men  spoken  of  for  the  next  presidency ;  and  this  book 
tells  them  briefly,  and  candidly,  and  fairly.  The  book  is  well  written,  and  gotten 
up  in  good  style." 

From  the  Cortland  County  Republican. 

"  No  one  can  afford  to  be  without  the  information  contained  in  this  book,  and 
we  know  of  no  place  where  it  can  be  had  at  so  little  cost,  and  where,  at  the  same 
time,  it  is  so  reliably  and  so  well  expressed." 

From  the  Daily  News,  New  York. 
"  The  interest  is  great  which  attaches  to  this  work." 

From  the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer. 

"  This  book  is  written  with  impartiality  and  good  judgment.  The  author  has 
an  easy,  graceful  style,  that  charms  the  reader,  while  he  is  seeking  after  the  facts 
which  appear  to  view  on  every  page." 

This  book  will  have  a  large  sale,  and  Agents  should  take  hold  of  it 
at  once. 

Copies  sent  by  mail-,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  price,  $1. 

Address  A.  B.  BURDICK,  PUBLISHER, 

145  NASSAU  STREET,  NEW  YORK 


OLD    HEPSY: 

A  POWERFUL    NATIONAL  STUttY 

BY  MRS.  MARY  A.  DENISON. 

Price  SI  25. 

THE  book  is  a  "arge  12mo.  volume,  of  nearly  500  pages,  and  is  embellished  witfc 
ten  portraits  of  characters  in  the  work,  engraved  by  the  first  artist  in  New  York. 

It  is  pronounced  by  the  press  generally,  to  b9  one  of  the  most  powerful  stories 
ever  written  in  this  country. 

The  author  is  now  engaged  in  dramatizing  it  for  the  stage,  and  it  is  being  trans 
lated  into  the  German  language.  It  will  soon  be  republished  both  in  England  and 
Germany. 

OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS* 

From  The  New  fork  Daily  Tribune. 

44 The  writer  has  made  an  excellent  use  of  the  abundant  resources  of  her  theme,  and  well  sustained 
oer  claim  to  the  mastery  of  a  fresh  and  vigorous  pen." 

From  The  Evening  Post  (New  York). 

"This  powerful  story  forcibly  illustrates  the  influence  of  slavery  upon  the  social  and  domestic 
relations in  a  new  aspect  of  literature.  It  is  a  picture  which,  though  dark  and  fearful,  is  true 

"The  incidents  are  of  the  most  exciting  character,  and  combine  to  render  the  book  intensely 
.nteresting." 

From  TJie  Pennsylvania  Inquirer  (Philadelphia'). 

"  The  characters  and  incidents  are  all  from  real  life.  The  style  is  glowing  and  graphic,  and  the 
details  are  full  of  interest  from  first  to  last.  The  work,  indeed,  is  one  of  rare  merit,  and  cannot  but 
produce  a  sensation." 

From  The  Boston  Daily  Courier. 

"  As  a  literary  composition,  it  ranks  higher  than  either  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  publications.  It  Is  impos 
sible  to  deny  to  the  author  of  OLD  HEPSEY  '  a  powerful  pen." 

From  The  Springfield  Republican  (Mass). 
**  It  is  a  story  full  of  excitement,  and  its  revelations  are  probably  true." 

From  Ziori*s  Herald  (Boston). 

"  Had  not '  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin '  preceded  it,  this  book  would  have  produced  a  sensation  quite 
equal  to  that." 

From  The  Christian  Enquirer  (New  York). 

"It  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  anti-slavery  works  which  has  ever  been  produced.  The  charac 
ters  of  Old  Hepsey,  Mabel,  and  Lawyer  Kenneth,  are  drawn  to  life,  and  the  excitement  of  interest  is 
almost  painful  as  the  end  is  approached." 

From  Home  Mission  Record  (New  York). 

"  The  incidents  are  thrilling.  By  those  who  are  judges, '  OLD  HEPSEY  '  Is  pronounced  equal  to 
1  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,'  of  world-wide  notoriety.  Our  readers  will  not  fail  to  have  a  copy  of  '  OLD 

llKPSEY.'" 

From  The,  Chelsea  Herald  (Mass). 

"  Mrs.  Denison  has  achieved  complete  success  in  this  work,  and  it  will  be  read  with  absorbing 
'•uterest  at  every  New  England  fireside." 

From  The  American  Baptist  (New  York). 

"It  has  all  the  fascination  of  a  regular  romance,  excelling,  in  this  respect,  both  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin'  and  'Dred.'" 

AGENTS  WANTED  in  every  part  of  the  free  States  and  Canadas  to  engage 
cnmediately  in  the  sale  of  this  book,  to  whom  liberal  discount  will  be  given. 
Sincrle  copies  sent  to  any  address,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  $1 

Address    A.  B.  BURDICK,  PUBLISHER, 

145  NASSAU  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 


HENRY   WARD    BEECHER'S 


REVISED  BY  THE  AUTHOR, 

WILL  APPEAR  IN 

THE    INDEPENDENT 

EVERY  WEEK. 

This  announcement  alone  should  be  of  sufficient  inducement  to 
thousands  to  send  their  subscriptions. 

The  conductors  of  thi*  paper  aim  to  make  it  the  most  influential  and 
nseful  religious  newspaper  published  in  this  country.  To  this  end  they 
employ  an  array  of  Editors,  Special  Contributors,  Regular  Correspondents, 
Miscellaneous  Essayists,  Commercial  Reporters,  and  other  writers,  each 
of  whom  contributes  a  valuable  and  indispensable  part  of  every  weekly 
number. 

In  addition  to  this,  arrangements  are  now  in  progress  by  which  THE 
INDEPENDENT,  for  the  coming  year,  will  be  made  still  more  interesting 
a,nd  attractive. 

A  wider  range  of  good  reading  will  be  introduced,  and  the  paper  will 
be  printed  throughout  with  new  type. 

It  is  intended  that  any  one  of  the  following  departments  of  the  paper, 
viz.  :  the  Sermons  of  • 

HENRY  WARD  BEECHER, 

the  Contributions  of  the 

REV.  GEORGE  B.  CHEEVER, 

the  Poems  of 

JOHN  G.  WHITTIER, 

the  Commercial  Articles  and  Market  Reports,  Editorial  articles,  or  the 
Family  Reading,  shall  be  worth  more  than  the  entire  subscription  price 
for  one  year. 

We  are  happy  to  announce  that  our  subscription  list  is  increasing 
more  rapidly  than  ever  before,  and  as  a  special  inducement  to  our  readers, 
we  will  say,  that  for  every  two  new  subscribers  sent  us  with  $5,  we  will 
credit  the  party  sending  the  same  with  one  year's  subscription. 

The  friends  of  THE  INDEPENDENT  in  all  sections  of  the  country,  will 
fevor  the  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged,  by  using  their  influence  to  ex 
tend  our  circulation. 

Terms,  $2  a  year  in  advance.    Address 

JOSEPH  H.  RICHARDS,  Publisher, 
No.  6  Beekman  St.,  New  York 


AGENTS  WANTED 


ALL  PARTS  OF  THE  COUNTRY 

To  engage  at  once  in  the  sale  of  our  Books.  We  have 
just  removed  our  Publishing  House  to  the  NEW  PARK 
BUILDING  (No.  145  Nassau  Street),  and  are  now  pre 
pared  to  fill  all  orders  promptly. 

ACTIVE     AGENTS 

CAN   MAKE 

Prom  $3b  to  $100  per  month,  net  profits, 

in  the  sale  of  our  Books.  Even  $200  per  month  HAVE 
BEEN  MADE  by  experienced  Agents. 

We  offer  none  but  live  books,  and  give  liberal  terms 
to  Agents. 

WE   SELL   FOR  CASH   ONLY 

Send  for  our  Descriptive  Catalogue  with   terms  to 
Agents.  : 

Address,  A.  B.  BTJRDICK,  Publisher, 

145  NASSAU  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 


RETURN  TO:      CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
198  Main  Stacks 


LOAN  PERIOD     1 
Home  Use 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS. 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 
Books  may  be  renewed  by  calling  642-3405. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW. 


vjLr  u 

3  *W1 

FORM  NO.  DD6                        UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
50M                                          Berkeley,  California  94720-6000 

BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


